Lucy Carpenter named CSC Academic All-America Team Member of the Year

AUSTIN, Texas – Loyola women's tennis standout Lucy Carpenter collected another postseason award on Tuesday, being named the 2024-25 NAIA Academic All-America Team Member of the Year. This also marks the second year in a row in which Carpenter's name is on the Academic All-America First Team, which is selected by College Sports Communicators. 

The Academic All-America program recognizes student-athletes who perform at an elite level in their sport and in the classroom at all three NCAA divisions and the NAIA. Established in 1952 with football, the program has continued to expand to other sports, and it added tennis in the 2022-23 season. Each sport is highlighted by a Team Member of the Year for each division, with Carpenter receiving that distinction at the NAIA level. 

Maintaining a 3.90 GPA in her Master of Business Administration program this year, Carpenter recently finished a storied collegiate tennis career where she was an NAIA All-American in all five years she competed. 

The 2025 season was her most successful yet, with over 40 victories between the spring and the fall schedules. Carpenter went 15-4 in singles, 21-6 including the fall season where she was a finalist at the ITA Regional and qualified for her fourth ITA Cup. She and Chloe Henderson only lost twice at the top position in doubles, going 19-2 overall. The two-time SSAC Player of the Year capped off her final college campaign with a second-straight NAIA quarterfinal appearance after helping Loyola capture its first conference championship and attain a national ranking of No. 6. 

Individually, she finished the 2025 spring ranked No. 6 in the NAIA both singles and doubles, though she rose as high as No. 5 in both during the season. Both are the highest tennis rankings ever for a Wolf Pack tennis player. 

Carpenter came to Loyola from New York in 2020 and quickly announced herself as one of the top players in the NAIA, garnering a national ranking of No. 8 in her first semester. She was named First-Team All-Conference as well as the SSAC Freshman of the Year in her first season, and she proceeded to earn First-Team All-SSAC honors five years in a row in addition to her All-America Team awards. She's also been honored as one of the best collegiate players in the state of Louisiana by the LSWA with an All-Louisiana award in every year she's been in New Orleans, and this year, she was announced as Loyola's Female Athlete of the Year at the inaugural award show, the Wolfies.

Her athletic achievements have been matched yearly by her academic accolades. Carpenter made the SSAC All-Academic Team and was a Daktronics NAIA Scholar-Athlete in each of the last four years. She was twice selected as the SSAC Scholar-Athlete of the Year in her sophomore and junior seasons, and she would have won the award a third time but was no longer up for consideration due to already being in graduate school halfway through her senior year of athletic eligibility. 

After five seasons at Loyola, Carpenter finished as Loyola's all-time leader in tennis victories, with a 68-31 record in singles and 80-25 in doubles.