AUSTIN, Texas – The College Sports Communicators (CSC) announced Tuesday the 2026 Academic All-America® softball teams for NCAA Division I, and the list of elite student-athletes includes Butler senior Hailey Conger who landed on the third team.

Conger, who recently graduated with dual degrees in Speech, Hearing and Language Sciences and Psychology, produced a 3.94 GPA this year.

Hailing from Gurnee, Ill., Conger earned All-BIG EAST First Team and NFCA All-Region Third Team honors in 2026. She ranked among the BIG EAST and national leaders in multiple categories: first in the BIG EAST and 25th nationally with 1.20 runs/game, second/31st with a .536 on-base percentage, and second/84th with a .410 batting average. Her 55 runs scored this season broke Butler's single-season record, which was previously 42.

The 2026 Academic All-America Team is headlined by Texas Tech's NiJaree Canady, who helped Texas Tech to its second consecutive NCAA Women's College World Series final in 2026 and repeats as the Division I Academic All-America® Team Member of the Year.

Canaday was one of 16 players named to the Division I Academic All-America® softball team representing six of the eight teams competing at the 2026 Women's College World Series. National champion Texas had two players selected while runner-up Texas Tech had three. Alabama and Nebraska each had four players named while Tennessee placed two and Arkansas had one.

Four of the 33 members of the Academic All-America® Division I softball teams boast a perfect 4.0 GPA in their undergraduate work or graduate school. The 11 members of the first team have an average GPA of 3.82, with the entire Division I team holding a collective average GPA of 3.83.