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30 CAVALIER CORNER cavalier profile LACY SMITH Fourth-Year • Softball Fourth-year first baseman Lacy Smith completed her rookie year on Virginia's softball team with a .213 batting average. Fast forward to her final season on Grounds, and she finished with a .414 average — third best all time in program annals. This 200-point improvement didn't happen by accident. "I think this past year I decided I only could go up," said Smith, who became just the second Cavalier since 2010 to earn first- team All-ACC honors and the first since 2004 to earn All-America accolades. "I went back to my mechanics in high school. I did a lot of different timing things. I went back to the roots I had going in. The first three years of college my numbers weren't great. "Those three years I kept saying, 'I'm one of the better hitters in the ACC.' This past year, I knew in my mind I was one of the best hitters. I added a kick which helped with my timing and got a lot of extra movement." In addition, she broke the school record for slugging percent- age with a mark of .784 (22 points higher than the mark set by Kristen Dennis in 2002). "I'm not a small woman," said Smith, who also drove in 43 runs and compiled 30 extra-base hits. "I'm pretty strong. If I was swinging at pitchers' pitches, I wasn't going to get singles. "The weightlifting I did was awesome and I built power, which I wanted. Pitch choice and the strength program definitely helped me." Not surprisingly, Smith admitted that it was difficult adjust- ing to pitching at the Division I college level as opposed to high school pitching. "It was really tough especially where I'm from [Lancaster, Pa.], where there are a few really good players as opposed to Califor- nia where everybody is top notch," Smith said. "I think travel ball is where I had to hone in playing against those top-notch players. "I swung at pitches and got myself out. There always are going to be awesome pitchers. What helped me was focusing on what I'm good at." — Mike Scandura Photo courtesy UVA