2012-13 Honda Sports Award for Softball – Keilani Ricketts

LOS ANGELES, California (June 13, 2013) --- For the second year in a row, the University of Oklahoma’s Keilani Ricketts (San Jose, Calif.), has received the Honda Sports Award for softball and becomes a finalist for the 2013 Honda Cup. The Collegiate Women Sports Awards (CWSA) will present the Honda Cup live on ESPNU, June 24 at the USC Galen Center Founders Room in Los Angeles.

“It’s an amazing honor to represent my team and my sport at the Honda Cup award ceremony for such a prestigious honor.  I would like to thank the Honda Sports Awards voters and my teammates for making this incredible opportunity possible,” said Ricketts.

Ricketts led her No 1-ranked team both from the circle and at the plate, taking the Sooners to their second straight Women’s College World Series and the 2013 NCAA title. After pitching a career high 12 innings and taking her team to a game one win in its best-of-three final series against Tennessee, she took the night off from the circle in game two, serving as the designated player and hitting a home run with 4 RBIs to help garner the title for the Sooners. Early in the WCWS, to help get her team to the final series, she threw a no-hitter and struck out 12 against Michigan. A dominating presence at 6-foot-2, she was 35-1 on the season, starting all 56 games (36 at pitcher and 20 at DP), and earned 2013 Big 12 Pitcher of the Year honors. Ricketts ranked No. 8 in the nation in ERA (1.23) and No. 6 in strikeouts (350).

Ricketts is Oklahoma’s all-time strikeout leader, holding records for career, season and single game strikeouts. In addition, her durability and consistency is shown by her school records for complete games and shutouts, while at the plate she is among the Sooner all-time greats in on-base percentage, home runs and walks. In the classroom, she is also a three-time Big 12 Commissioner’s honor roll member. A native of San Jose, Calif., Ricketts was chosen as the 2009 EA Sports/ESPN Rise National Player of the Year while competing for Archbishop Mitty High School. She was a 2012 and 2011 Team USA member.  

The CWSA presents the Honda Sports Award annually to top women athletes in 12 NCAA-sanctioned sports. With this honor, Ricketts, a senior health and exercise science major, becomes a finalist for the Collegiate Woman Athlete of the Year and the 2013 Honda Cup. She was chosen for the Honda Sports Award by a vote of the National Fastpitch Coaches Association. Finalists included Oklahoma’s Lauren Chamberlain, Arizona State’s Amber Freeman, and Tennessee’s Lauren Gibson. In 2012, as the Honda Sports Award winner for softball, she was a Top Three finalist for the Honda Cup and participated in the nationally televised ESPN broadcast.

Ricketts will be joined in Los Angeles by an impressive roster of 2013 Honda Cup finalists including  Iowa State's Betsy Saina (cross country), Princeton's Katie Reinprecht (field hockey), North Carolina's Crystal Dunn (soccer), Oregon's Alaina Bergsma (volleyball), Georgia's Allison Schmitt (swimming & diving), Delaware's Elena Delle Donne (basketball), Florida's Bridget Sloan (gymnastics), USC's Annie Park (golf), North Carolina’s Kara Cannizzaro (lacrosse), Stanford’s Nicole Gibbs (tennis) and LSU’s Kimberlyn Duncan (track and field).  The Honda Cup finalists will be joined by the 2013 Honda Inspiration Winner, Purdue’s Andrea “Drey” Mingo, and the NCAA Div. II Athlete of the Year, Ashland University’s Kari Daugherty, and the NCAA Div. III Athlete of the Year, Allyson Fournier of Tufts University.

The Collegiate Women Sports Awards has honored the nation’s top NCAA women athletes for 37 years, recognizing superior athletic skills, leadership, academic excellence and eagerness to participate in community service. Since commencing its sponsorship in 1986, Honda has provided more than $2.7 million in institutional grants to the universities of the award winners and nominees to support women’s athletics programs at the institutions. Previous Honda Cup winners include Brittney Griner, Ann Meyers Drysdale, Lisa Fernandez, Misty May- Treanor, Maya Moore, and Candace Parker.