NASHVILLE, Tenn. – – Belmont University softball All-American Maya Johnson has been named to the 2025-26 College Sports Communicators (CSC) Academic All-America® Division I Softball Team, the group introduced Tuesday.
For Johnson, this newest honor additional cements her legacy in Belmont lore.
Arguably probably the most dominant athlete in Belmont historical past, Johnson has authored one of many nice tales of braveness and perseverance in all of sports activities.
A local of Columbia Station, Ohio, Johnson led Belmont to consecutive Missouri Valley Conference championships and NCAA Tournament bids.
Behind the left-handed pitcher, Belmont joined Grand Canyon and South Florida as considered one of solely three applications exterior the key conferences to win NCAA Tournament softball video games every of the final two seasons.
Johnson additionally grew to become the primary Belmont student-athlete ever to earn nationwide First Team All-America honors in consecutive seasons.
Her checklist of 2026 season accolades had been spectacular and in depth.
Johnson was named National Pitcher of the Year by the National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) and Softball America, in addition to garnering First Team All-America honors from the NFCA, Softball America and D1Softball.
The pitching ace was additionally named 2026 Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame Female Amateur Athlete of the Year, and finalist for the USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year and the Honda Sport Award for softball.
She ranked amongst nationwide leaders in just about each statistical class, together with strikeouts (397), strikeouts per seven innings (12.9), strikeout-to-walk ratio (11.03), earned run common (0.78), WHIP (0.68), full video games (31), and shutouts (15).
Johnson led Belmont to transformational victories over Mississippi State and Georgia this season because the Bruins additionally received the Missouri Valley Conference common season title.
Belmont earned National Top 25 ballot votes and was ranked No. 1 nationally in mid-major polls from Softball America and D1Softball nearly all of the season.
Her 1,186 profession strikeouts led all energetic gamers in NCAA softball.
Johnson was chosen No. 3 general by the Oklahoma City Spark within the 2026 Athletes Unlimited Softball League (AUSL) College Draft May 4.
Johnson, who earned her bachelor’s diploma with honors in nursing this previous May, is an inspiration, having risen to the highest of school softball battling via an autoimmune situation referred to as lupus.
She has develop into an advocate and nationwide spokesperson for the Lupus Foundation of America, serving as a keynote speaker on the End Lupus Now stroll in Nashville this previous fall.
Johnson is a two-time Missouri Valley Conference Scholar-Athlete of the Year.
For perspective, Johnson turns into the 26th Belmont student-athlete to earn CSC Academic All-All-America® honors. Tyler Lundblade of Belmont males’s basketball additionally earned All-America® honors this 12 months.
Moreover, when together with softball, volleyball, males’s basketball and ladies’s basketball, Johnson is considered one of solely two student-athletes exterior the key conferences to garner First Team Academic-All-America® recognition (Kamryn Hunt, Dayton volleyball).
The 2025-26 CSC Academic All-All-America® Softball Team acknowledges the nation’s prime student-athletes for his or her mixed performances on the court docket and within the classroom.
To be eligible for Academic All-America® consideration, a student-athlete should be a varsity starter or key reserve, preserve a cumulative G.P.A. of three.50 on a scale of 4.00, have reached sophomore athletic and tutorial standings at his present establishment and be nominated by his athletic communications director.
For a whole itemizing of the 2025-26 Academic All-America® Softball Team, log onto collegesportscommunicators.com.