IRVING, Texas – Four members of the nationally ranked Sun Devil Softball program found themselves on either the All-Big 12 First or Second Team when the league announced its all-conference honors on Wednesday morning. Kenzie Brown, Katie Chester and Samantha Swan were all selected to the first team, while Kaylee Pond was chosen to the second team.
Swan was one of eight student-athletes to be a unanimous All-Big 12 First Team selection, joining Arizona’s Sydney Stewart, Kansas’ Ella Boyer, Oklahoma State’s Ruby Meylan and a quintet of Texas Tech Red Raiders NiJaree Canady, Jackie Lis, Kaitlyn Terry and Mia Williams. Brown becomes the first Sun Devil to earn back-to-back All-Big 12 First Team honors.
The three All-Big 12 First Team honorees mark the most first-team selections for Arizona State since Lindsay Lopez, Yannira Acuña, Cydney Sanders and Alynah Torres were all selected as first-team members following the 2022 campaign.
Brown, a first-team selection a season ago in 2025, led the Big 12 with 222 strikeouts, joining Meylan, who was selected as the Big 12’s Pitcher of the Year, as the only student-athletes in the league with 200-or-more strikeouts. In conference-only action, Brown finished the Sun Devils’ conference slate with 113 strikeouts, becoming the only student-athlete around the conference to strikeout 100-or-more batters in Big 12 play this season.
Swan’s .473 batting average in conference play was the second highest by any student-athlete in the Big 12, just .017 points back of Stewart, who won the Big 12’s Player of the Year honor. She was the only student-athlete with 35 or more hits and 11 or more doubles in conference play. Her 64 total bases against conference foes were three shy of the top mark – held by Stewart – during Big 12 play.
Chester, who ranks among the top 10 in ASU’s single-season history in both home runs and RBI, connected for 18 home runs on the season, the fourth most by any student-athlete in the Big 12, while her 63 RBI are the third most as well. She joins Stewart as the only other student-athlete around the conference to hit eight or more home runs and drive in 28 or more RBI against conference pitching.
Pond was the only student-athlete in the Big 12 to be hit by 10 or more pitches, while also drawing 30 or more walks throughout the duration of the 2026 regular season. She was one of 11 student-athletes around the league to score 50 or more runs and be credited with 50 or more hits on the season. She also connected for a personal single-season career-high 14 home runs, while also driving in 46.
Up next
The quartet of Sun Devils and their teammates will now travel to Oklahoma City, where the sixth-seeded Arizona State Sun Devils (38-16) will take on the third-seeded Arizona Wildcats (35-15) in the quarterfinals of the Big 12 Softball Tournament presented by Allstate at 5:30 p.m. MST on Thursday, May 7.
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