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Senior CLASS Award Release
OVERLAND PARK, Kan. – Lehigh senior shortstop Carley Barjaktarovich has been named as one of 30 candidates for the prestigious Senior CLASS Award. The award encompasses community, classroom, character and competition. One of Lehigh’s top performers on and off the field, Barjaktarovich entered her senior season as a two-time All-Patriot League honoree, the 2021 Patriot League Defensive Player of the Year and Scholar-Athlete of the Year and a NFCA All-Region selection .
Barjaktarovich joins an impressive list of candidates from around the nation. The 30 candidates will be narrowed to 10 finalists later in the season, and those 10 names will be placed on the official ballot. Ballots will be distributed through a nationwide voting system to media, coaches and fans, who will select one candidate who best exemplifies excellence in the four Cs of community, classroom, character and competition.
An acronym for Celebrating Loyalty and Achievement for Staying in School ®, the Senior CLASS Award focuses on the total student-athlete and encourages students to use their platform in athletics to make a positive impact as leaders in their communities.
The Senior CLASS Award winner will be announced during the 2022 Women’s College World Series.
Barjaktarovich holds a cumulative 3.84 grade point average as a double major in HR Management and Marketing, with minors in Psychology and Philosophy. She was the 2021 Patriot League Scholar-Athlete of the Year for softball and a member of the Academic All-Patriot League softball team as well as the CoSIDA Academic All-District team. Barjaktarovich has made the Patriot League Academic Honor Roll following each of her first three seasons, and has made Lehigh’s Dean’s List with a GPA of 3.6 or better in each of her first seven semesters on campus. Her list of academic awards at Lehigh include the Class of 1904 award and the Lehigh College of Business’ Nelson Leighton Bond Memorial Prize. Barjaktarovich has been inducted into the Lehigh Marketing Department’s Lambda Mu Sigma honor society and Beta Gamma Sigma, the international business honor society.
Barjaktarovich is well respected by her teammates and is entering her second season as a team captain for the Mountain Hawks. In addition to her softball duties, Barjaktarovich has been involved in the Lehigh Athletics Leadership Academy (Flight45) within the athletics department. Within Flight45, Barjaktarovich serves as a Student-Athlete Mentor (SAM), who assists first-year student-athletes with the transition to college. She also has served as a Co-Captain and Executive Board Member for Flight45 where she helps facilitate discussion on how to foster an inclusive environment where Lehigh student-athletes can learn, grow and lead. Barjaktarovich has been recognized with Lehigh’s Student Senate Leadership Award and the Contribution to Student Life Award.
Most of Barjaktarovich’s community outreach comes from her servant leadership roles within Flight45. In her role as a Co-Captain and Executive Board Member for Flight45, Barjaktarovich regularly meets and collaborates with other departments on campus, including the Office of First-Year Experience and the Office of Multicultural Affairs. Barjaktarovich spent the summer of 2021 working as a ticket sales associate with the Lehigh Valley IronPigs, Triple-A affiliate of the Philadelphia Phillies. The relationship with the IronPigs resulted in Barjaktarovich becoming the first college athlete to sign a NIL (name, image, likeness) deal with a professional sports team when she signed such a deal with the team last summer. Barjaktarovich also serves her community as a softball skills instructor in her hometown of Richmond, Mich.
Barjaktarovich enters his senior season as a three-year starter at shortstop who also sets the table as the Mountain Hawks’ leadoff hitter. Following the 2021 season, Barjaktarovich was a first team NFCA All-Region honoree, a second team All-Patriot League selection and the Patriot League’s Defensive Player of the Year. She has led the Mountain Hawks in batting in each of the last two seasons, including a Patriot League-best .471 in 2021, which was the second-highest single season average in program history. Barjaktarovich has started all 106 games Lehigh has played since she arrived on campus. In 2021, Barjaktarovich also led the Patriot League with 57 hits and 19 stolen bases. She is a career .373 hitter with 126 hits, 69 runs scored and 34 stolen bases. Lehigh reached the finals of the Patriot League Tournament in both 2019 and 2021 (there was no postseason in 2020).
So far this season, Barjaktarovich is batting .303 with 10 hits, four runs scored and two stolen bases in 10 games.
The Mountain Hawks (3-7) are back on the road for four games over three days at the JMU Classic, March 11-13 in Harrisonburg, Va. Lehigh will face No. 11/12 Arkansas twice and will play Maryland and host James Madison in the tournament, which covers the first weekend of Lehigh’s spring break.
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