LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Fifty-five student-athletes from 39 different schools have been voted to one of three 2025 NFCA Division III All-America teams, the Association revealed on Wednesday evening during the NCAA Division III Championship banquet in Bloomington, Ill.
Seven of the eight teams who advanced to the NCAA Division III Finals had players earn All-America status, including No. 4 Rowan and sixth-ranked Linfield, who tied for the most honorees nationally with four apiece. No. 5 Trine had three selections, while third-ranked Virginia Wesleyan (top World Series seed) and No. 9 Texas Lutheran both had two. Seventh-ranked Saint Mary’s (Minn.) and No. 24 Randolph-Macon each had one All-American.
Super Regional teams East Texas Baptist — the top-ranked team in the NFCA/GoRout Top 25 Coaches Poll entering NCAA play and last year’s national champion — and Gettysburg had two All-Americans apiece. Central also had two choices, while fellow NCAA regional participants Christopher Newport, Simpson and Williams joined Saint Mary’s and Randolph-Macon in the group of 27 teams with one player honored.
Region X had the most selections of any region with 10, followed by Region VI with eight, and Regions V, VII and IX with six. Regions III, IV and VIII each had five, while Region I had three and Region II had one.
There are 26 seniors, 13 juniors, 10 sophomores, four graduate students and two freshmen on the All-America squads.
This is the third year since the renaming of the first-team Utility/Pitcher award to honor the late Joan Joyce, an NFCA Hall of Famer and pioneer of women’s sports. This season, Saint Mary’s sophomore Makayla Steffes earned that distinction, excelling at the plate and in the circle. She batted a team-best .425 with 67 runs, 11 doubles, four triples, nine home runs, 45 RBI, 19 walks and just two strikeouts, while also compiling a 21-4 record, 1.75 ERA, 1.08 WHIP, 19 complete games, seven shutouts, 139 strikeouts and 41 walks over 175.2 innings.
Denison junior Annabelle Calderon is the Diamond Sports/NFCA Division III Catcher of the Year for a second straight season, after again being voted the first-team All-American at that position. She boasted a .983 fielding average with just three errors in 179 defensive chances for the Big Red. Calderon also batted a team-leading .458, with 41 runs, 55 hits, 20 doubles, 11 home runs, 39 RBI, a .917 slugging average, .549 on-base percentage and 1.466 OPS across 39 games.
In a two-Bulldog race, Texas Lutheran junior outfielder Annie Kay dethroned teammate and two-time reigning New Balance/NFCA Golden Shoe award winner Caelee Clark as Division III’s most prolific base stealer. She has 62 steals in 63 attempts (.984 success rate) so far this season and has averaged 1.32 swipes per game heading into this week’s World Series competition.
Randolph-Macon senior Gracie Ellis and East Texas Baptist graduate student Tristen Maddox led 19 repeat winners, with that duo collecting their fourth-straight All-America honors. Trine’s Alexis Michon and Debbie Hill, Linfield’s Claire Seats and Williams’ Sadie Leonard each earned their third All-America nod, with Michon’s three selections all coming on the first team.
Picking up a second career honor are Central’s Haley Bach, Denison’s Annabelle Calderon, Wisconsin-Platteville’s Melissa Dietz, Bowdoin’s Anika Ewert, Belhaven’s Ellie Jones, Rowan’s Rylee Lutz and Emily McCutcheon, Trine’s Tyra Marcum, Christopher Newport’s Jamie Martin, Linfield’s Brynn Nelson, Carthage’s Clare Rettler, Simpson’s Ashlyn Steen and Saint Mary’s Makayla Steffes.
The NFCA All-America teams are voted on by the Association’s All-America Committees. In Division III, the committee is comprised of one member head coach from each of the NCAA’s 10 regions. All student-athletes who were nominated by a member head coach and voted to the first, second or third team All-Region squads were eligible for All-America consideration.
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