Northwestern State softball standout Aly Delafield and Lady Demon tennis senior Ayu Ishibashi were named to Southland Conference All-Academic teams in their sports on Monday, the league office announced.

Delafield, a sophomore utility player, earned a spot on the second-team softball all-academic squad based on the votes of coaches, academic personnel and sports information directors of the member schools. This is Delafield’s first postseason academic honor of her career.

The North DeSoto High School product maintained a 3.65 cumulative GPA in her second year at NSU as a psychology major.

She led the team this season with a .322 batting average, bolstered by her .398 clip against conference foes, the highest SLC batting average by a Demon in 10 years, just one hit shy of a coveted .400 season.

Her 1.047 OPS in Southland play was one of the highest totals in the league this year by any player with nearly 40 percent of her 33 hits in conference going for extra bases. 

Delafield had at least one hit in 12 straight conference games, one of the longest streaks in the league this year.

She hit .428 across four straight series with seven extra-base hits, including back-to-back two doubles games against Stephen F. Austin.

The Stonewall native finished the season ranked in the top 10 in the conference in average, hits and doubles with the second most doubles (9) in SLC play in the league.

Following a standout senior campaign helping the Northwestern tennis team to a Southland Conference regular-season championship, Ishibashi was named Academic All-Southland Conference second team.

Ishibashi, a native of Chiba, Japan, continued to shine for the Lady Demons both athletically and academically during the 2024-25 season. 

Majoring in health and exercise science, she boasted a 3.9 GPA.

A second team All-Southland selection in both singles and doubles, Ishibashi led NSU with a 10-3 overall record in singles play, including a 7-2 mark in conference matches, second on the team. 

Paired with junior Sofi Garcia, Ishibashi added to her accolades in doubles, posting a 7-4 overall record and going 4-2 in Southland play at the No. 2 position.