OKLAHOMA CITY (February 3, 2017) -- FIU senior first baseman Stephanie Texeira (Miami, Florida / Gulliver Prep) was named to the USA Softball Top 50 "Watch List" for the 2017 USA Softball Collegiate Player of Year award on Wednesday, February 1.
 
A three-time All-Conference USA selection, Texeira was the third player in program history to be named First-Team All-South Region by the National Fastpitch Coaches Association and has been on the Second-Team All-Conference USA honoree in all three seasons as a Panther. She has also appeared on the Preseason All-Conference Team three-straight seasons.
 
Poised to become the program's all-time career home run leader, Texeira is also second in program history in runs batted in and walks, while fourth in doubles and eighth in runs scored by a Panther with one year to go in her career.
 
Texeira needs just one home run to tie the all-time lead in home runs (33) and is 23 RBI behind the all-time leader. She only needs 28 runs scored and 10 walks from reaching the top career totals in those categories. All of those totals would be achieved if she has an average season compared to her previous three. She is also currently the career batting average leader (.421), 64 points higher than the next-closest Panther.
 
Last season, she missed 15 games due to injury, so did not qualify for league statistical categories due to minimum requirements. With just two more games played, she would have finished third in the league in batting average (team-leading .413), while she was still tied for third in the league in home runs (13) and runs batted in (46). She struck out just twice in 121 season at bats.
 
After her sophomore season, she set the school record with a .444 batting average, driving in 51 runs, second-most in school history for a single season and third-most in the league that year. Her .833 on-base percentage led Conference USA hitters, while she finished second in C-USA in slugging, with a .798 mark.
 
She was the Conference USA Freshman of the Year, an All-Freshman Team member and selected All-South Region following the 2014 season after nailing 11 homers and finishing 34^th in the country with a .516 on-base percentage. She was second in C-USA with a .736 slugging percentage, as she drove in 41 and scored a career-high 43 runs.
 
Texeira and the Panthers will host a tournament during the opening weekend of regular-season play, with the Felsberg Invitational starting the 2017 campaign. FIU will take on Rutgers at 4 p.m. Eastern at Felsberg Field at FIU Softball Stadium to begin the weekend, during which FIU will play six contests against four different opponents. FIU won 18 of the 33 games played on the home surface last season.

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About FIU Athletics: FIU Athletics is home to more than 400 student-athletes in 18 different sports, and is a proud member of Conference USA. Athletic events are played in seven different venues on FIU's campuses (Modesto A. Maidique and Biscayne Bay), including FIU Arena and the FIU Football Stadium.
 
About FIU: Florida International University is recognized as a Carnegie engaged university. It is a public research university with colleges and schools that offers more than 180 bachelor's, master's and doctoral programs in fields such as engineering, international relations, architecture, law and medicine. As one of South Florida's anchor institutions, FIU contributes $9.8 billion each year to the local economy. FIU is Worlds Ahead in finding solutions to the most challenging problems of our time. FIU emphasizes research as a major component of its mission. FIU has awarded over 200,000 degrees and enrolls more than 54,000 students in two campuses and three centers including FIU Downtown on Brickell, FIU@I-75, and the Miami Beach Urban Studios. FIU also supports artistic and cultural engagement through its three museums: the Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum, the Wolfsonian-FIU, and the Jewish Museum of Florida-FIU. FIU is a member of Conference USA and has over 400 student-athletes participating in 18 sports. For more information about FIU, visit http://www.fiu.edu/.