SEGUIN, Texas -- Texas Lutheran senior Katelyn Howard (Waller/Hempstead) was named the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC) Pitcher of the Week on Monday by the conference office.

The Waller native went 1-0 in the circle with the first no-hitter in NCAA Division-III in 2026 to lead TLU to 2-0 opening weekend.

Howard collected her first solo career no-hitter in a 6-0 victory over Mary Hardin-Baylor, striking out a career-high eight Crusaders in her complete game performance.

She kept the Crusaders off the base paths until the seventh inning. A seventh inning walk and error would be the only blemish for Howard in her stellar season-opening performance. The no-hitter is the 34th in program history and the second Howard has been apart of as she combined with Ashlyn Strother and Sydney Ouellette for a no-hitter in the 2023 NCAA Marshall Regional against SUNY-Geneseo. It is the first Opening Day no-hitter since Maitlin Raycroft tossed a 16 K no-hitter against Huston-Tillotson on Opening Day 2018 and only the third in program history (Megan Carmichael, 2011).

The Texas Lutheran softball team will travel to face McMurry in Abilene to open SCAC play this Friday, Feb. 13. First pitch of Friday's doubleheader is scheduled for 4 PM. All three games will stream on FloCollege. All streaming and live stats links can be found on tlubulldogs.com.

For more information on Texas Lutheran softball, follow the Bulldogs on Facebook (@txlutheransoftball), X (Twitter) (@TLUsoftball), and Instagram (@tlu_softball) and as always you can find updates on all Texas Lutheran athletics on tlubulldogs.com and all official TLU social media channels (@tluathletics on Twitter, @tlu_athletics on Instagram and TikTok, and @tlubulldogs on Facebook).