INDIANAPOLIS – University of Indianapolis senior softball hurler Kenzee Smith earned the 2024 Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC) Richard F. Scharf Paragon Award as the league's female athlete of the year, the Conference office announced Monday.

The award is bestowed annually by the GLVC to one male and one female student-athlete who display academic excellence, athletic ability and achievement, character, and leadership. It is named in honor of former GLVC Commissioner, as well as coach and director of athletics at Saint Joseph's College.
 
Smith will be formally recognized Tuesday, May 21, at the Enterprise Rent-A-Car GLVC Awards Reception in St. Louis, Missouri.

Smith is the second softball student-athlete and seventh overall female student-athlete from Indianapolis to win the GLVC's most prestigious honor. The latest recipient for the Greyhounds was also a softball player, as Hallie Waters took home the award in 2020-21. The right-handed pitcher has earned a plethora of awards thus far in her final season at UIndy, including GLVC Pitcher of the Week seven times, All-GLVC First Team, GLVC Pitcher of the Year, D2CCA All-Midwest Region Pitcher of the Year, NFCA All-Midwest Region First Team, and making the NFCA Division II Player of the Year watchlist. She led the league in GLVC-only games for earned run average (0.14), strikeouts (105), home runs allowed (zero) and wins (16), while also tying for the lead in saves (three) in 96.2 innings pitched. Smith also currently leads NCAA D-II in earned run average, hits allowed per seven innings, wins, shutouts, and complete games through NCAA Super Regionals. Smith has helped her squad to a 58-5 record thus far, winning the NCAA Midwest Region and earning a bid to the NCAA World Series.
 
After a four-year career and 861.2 innings pitched, Smith leaves the Greyhounds as one of the greatest softball players in program history. The hurler was picked as GLVC Pitcher of the Year twice (2023 and 2024), NFCA and GLVC Freshman of the Year in 2021, D2CCA and NFCA All-America three times, D2CCA and NFCA All-Midwest Region First Team four times, and All-GLVC First Team four times throughout her decorated career. Smith also tops the UIndy record books in single-season ERA (.36, 2024) and shutouts (22, 2024), along with career ERA (.95) and GLVC Pitcher of the Week selections (14) through Super Regionals. In her four seasons, the Greyhounds currently hold a 205-33 overall record and had a 95-10 Conference mark, winning three GLVC Regular Season titles (2021, 2023, 2024), one GLVC Tournament title (2021), finishing runner-up three times in the GLVC Tournament (2022-24) and appearing in the NCAA Tournament all four years (2021-24).
 
In the classroom, Smith was equally dominant, carrying a 3.588 GPA into her final semester as a nursing major. She received Academic All-GLVC honors three times, CSC Academic All-America Third Team and Academic All-District laurels in 2023, and is nominated for Academic All-America this year. The local Indianapolis native appeared on the Dean's List four times and landed on the Honor Roll once. To go along with her impressive athletic and academic resume, Smith has volunteered for multiple charitable events during her time at UIndy, including Community Health Food Pantry in Lawrence Township, Beggars for the Poor, Fever Golf Fore Change, Shopping with the Pacers, and Gardening for Joy's House.