IOWA CITY, Iowa – Three Rutgers softball Scarlet Knights landed on All-Big Ten Teams, it was announced on Wednesday by the league office prior to the start of the 2024 Big Ten Softball Tournament.

Senior two-way Morgan Smith was a unanimous First Team All-Big Ten selection and named to the Big Ten All-Defensive Team, senior shortstop Kyleigh Sand landed on her third All-Big Ten team earning first-team honors and graduate student pitcher Mattie Boyd was a Second Team All-Big Ten pick.  



Smith, who was named the No. 1 two-way player in the nation by Softball America last week in the publication's May position power rankings, enters the postseason hitting .412 with 68 hits, 49 runs, 13 doubles, four triples, 19 home runs and a .885 slugging percentage. In the circle, Smith is 11-10 with a 3.54 ERA and 93 strikeouts in 30 appearances and 130.2 innings of work. Smith leads the league in RBIs and is tied with the Big Ten Player of the Year Jess Oakland as the conference's leader in home runs along with ranking third in batting average. 

In addition to setting a new season benchmark in RBIs, Smith's name can be found in the record book ranked second in season home runs, seventh in season batting average, sixth in season hits and in her two seasons "On The Banks" second in career batting average and seventh in career home runs. 

Defensively, Smith lands on the All-Big Ten defensive team for the second consecutive season. She held a .983 field percentage playing at both center field and pitcher having only made one error at each position on 118 chances. Altogether she collected 67 putouts and 49 assists. 

A Big Ten Player of the Week back on April 15, Smith batted .500 (6-for-12) across five games with four home runs, 16 RBIs, seven runs scored and a 1.583 slugging percentage in RU's 3-2 week including a series victory over Maryland for the second-straight year. The senior Scarlet Knight also added a pair of sac flies and was 3-for-3 on stolen bases. Smith also made two appearances in the circle tossing six innings with six strikeouts. In the doubleheader with the Terps, she went 4-for-5 with a double, two home runs and 10 RBIs while surpassing Jackie Bates (2015) as RU's single-season RBIs leader.
 


Leadoff and shortstop Kyleigh Sand lands on her third All-Big Ten Team becoming the recipient of the most All-Big Ten Team honors of any Scarlet Knight. She was a first-team honoree in 2022 and a second-team pick in 2023.  
 
Entering the 2024 campaign, Sand was named the No. 11 shortstop in D1Softball's preseason rankings and enters the Big Ten Tournament leading the RU offense hitting .420 with a program-record 62 runs, 76 hits, nine doubles, four triples and four RBIs while leading RU with 14 stolen bases. She is second in the Big Ten in batting average, hits, runs scored and fourth in walks and checks in seventh among Division I players in hits (76) and 13th nationally in runs per game averaging 1.15 per contest.
 
In addition to holding both the Rutgers career and season record for runs scored, she currently holds the Scarlet Knights' top career batting average and is third in career stolen bases, fifth in career hits and walks, eighth in career triples along with second in season hits, fourth in season batting average and fifth in season walks.
 
Mattie Boyd comes into the Big Ten Tournament at 19-9 on the year with a 2.38 ERA and team-leading 157 strikeouts, currently ranked eighth on RU's season leaders list. In 36 appearances, she has started 29 contests with 19 complete games and a trio of complete game shutouts including a 9-0 shutout over Maryland behind seven strikeouts, a 3-0 series-opening victory at Minnesota and a 2-0 no-hitter versus Army for RU's first no-hitter since 2022. Boyd also hurled a trio of double-digit strikeouts in games with Colgate and the first-ever series victories over Ohio State and Wisconsin. In Big Ten action, Boyd was 13-3 with a 2.16 ERA and 81 strikeouts in 90.2 innings pitched holding conference foes to a .226 average. Boyd's 19 victories on the year are currently second in Rutgers season records needing two more to tie for the most in a season.


Megan Herka was the Rutgers recipient of this year's Big Ten Sportsmanship Award. The annual award is given to student-athletes with distinguished sportsmanship, ethical behavior, academic standing and good citizenship outside the sports-competition setting. A four-year letterwinner and Edison, New Jersey native, Herka has appeared in 119 games for the Scarlet Knights. She is a two-time Big Ten All-Academic honoree majoring in sports management. 

The Rutgers softball team begins Big Ten Tournament play on Thursday at 8 p.m. (ET) against the winner of the No. 6 Ohio State and No. 11 Wisconsin first-round matchup.
Rutgers enters the Big Ten Tournament with its highest-ever tournament seed since joining the conference in the 2015 season. The Scarlet Knights enter with a 33-21 record, one win shy of tying the school record set in 1993, and a 14-9 Big Ten record for the number three seed.  
 
The Rutgers program is currently playing in its 50th season "On The Banks". The 2024 Scarlet Knights captured the first-ever back-to-back 30-win season, the most wins in Big Ten play and the most Big Ten series wins in program history.

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