Women's basketball senior, April Watson was named an NAIA First Team All-American as released by the association on Thursday. Although the women's basketball program has had other athletes be honored as Second Team All-American and on the Honorable Mention list, Watson is the first ever player in program history to achieve First Team All-American honors.

Head coach Sue Syljebeck said, "We have had a lot of great players to come through our program and be honored by the NAIA. But it is such a great accomplishment for April to be our first ever athlete in program history, to be named to the first team."

This season, Watson averaged a team high 19.4 points, 11.3 rebounds, 2.0 blocks and finished the season with 22 double-doubles in 34 games. She recorded a season high in scoring with 35 points against Cornerstone (Jan. 25) and season and career highs with 20 rebounds on two occasions – against Cornerstone (Feb. 22) and Lourdes (Feb. 18). She also swatted a season high seven blocks in the Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference semifinal against Indiana Tech (Feb. 25).

On the Siena Heights career leaderboard, Watson finished eighth all-time in scoring with 1,073 points in just two seasons with the program. She also finished first all-time, averaging 16.8 points per game in her career and sixth all-time with 661 total rebounds. Watson also holds the single season rebounding record in the 2016-17 season with 383 total boards. She also completed her career with a SHU record, 129 career blocks.

In her senior season, Watson led the Saints to their fourth NAIA national tournament appearance in school history and was honored as a member of the WHAC First Team All-Conference, All-Defensive team and was named player of the week three times.