When we reach the conclusion of any endeavor into which we have poured our passion, we always would like to go out on top in a blaze of glory. Karleigh Donovan did exactly that.

The Longwood University softball standout made the most of her redshirt senior season, cementing her legacy as a program leader on the field during the years in which the Lancers became a Big South Conference dynasty.

In her redshirt freshman year, Donovan played 52 games and had a .333 batting average, third-best on the team.

That year, the Lancers went 40-20, winning the Big South regular season and tournament championships.

As a redshirt sophomore, Donovan struggled early, along with her teammates, before coming on strong late in the season to help the Lancers win the Big South tournament and finish 30-29. In a year during which no one on the team finished with a batting average higher than .295, she finished with a .253 average across 57 games, fourth-best on the team.

Last year, Donovan was second-best on the team with a .333 batting average, and she was in a three-way tie for the team-high in doubles with 11. Her efforts helped the Lancers win the Big South regular season title and finish 38-16 overall.

This year, Donovan led the team with a .348 batting average and 62 hits and tied for the lead in triples with three.

This helped Longwood win the Big South regular season and tournament titles, finishing the year with a 37-22 record.

Donovan was sensational in her final Big South tournament, earning for the first time the title of Tournament MVP.

Finishing strong was a clear goal Donovan set her sights on.

“I worked really hard for it, so, of course, it felt great to be able to do that well,” she said, reflecting on the MVP honor. “I wasn’t honestly even expecting to do that well myself, but they say hard work pays off, so I guess it really did pay off.”

Across Longwood’s four games in the tournament, Donovan went 8-for-12 with two RBIs and three runs scored, recording a .667 batting average for the event.

Among her achievements during her years with the Lancers, Donovan shared where she would rank what she was able to do for her team in this year’s Big South tournament?

“(At) the top,” she said. “This is the best. This tournament’s the best. Yeah, it’s definitely been my favorite, and just the team, we get along so well, so that really helped too because we all put forth an effort, and it wasn’t really anybody just by themselves. It was really a big team effort.”

Though the Lancers went 0-2 in the 2019 NCAA Tournament against the caliber of elite-level competition they rarely get to face, Donovan remained strong, leading her team in its final game, going 2-for-2 at the plate against the University of North Carolina.

Being able to finish with her best play at the college level was made possible in part by her having a redshirt year that allowed her to get ahead on her academic work while preserving four upcoming years of athletic eligibility. She had only one class to focus on this semester.

Speaking at Lancer Field, Donovan said, “When I wasn’t doing the little bit of work that I had for my French class, then I was out here hitting and doing just other things to get out of the house, because if not, I was just sitting there, and I don’t want to just sit at home and do nothing.”

This informs her explanation for what has helped her peak as a senior.

“Just having the experience under my belt and then really working hard this year has really definitely helped a lot,” she said. “My pitching instructor that I went to for 11 years called me the other day and congratulated me, and she asked me what the difference was, and I was like, ‘I guess I’m just dialed in. It’s my fifth year, and the ball looks like it’s THIS big, and I’m finally comfortable again.’ So that definitely helped. People say that with experience you get better, and I believe them now.”

With Donovan’s time as an active Lancer player coming to a close, Longwood Head Coach Kathy Riley conveyed what she thinks of when she ponders Donovan and her contribution to the softball program.

“First of all I think about her and I think about her growth,” Riley said. “When you get somebody in there young and then you see where they go year one, year two, year three, year four … Losing some of that vulnerability in certain areas and having confidence is a big part of her growth. She’s meant a lot to us, obviously, as a hitter.”

But then the coach delved into another element of what Donovan brought to the team that also reached its peak this year as she moved to play at first base.

“More importantly this year she’s meant a lot more to us just in terms of her being more leadership-oriented in terms of that infield,” Riley said. “They’re a fairly quiet group, so a lot falls on her to keep the energy level up and to stay intelligent in regards to the game and what decisions we’re going to make. And because I’ve played, I understand really how hard that is. It’s really difficult to go every inning out there and be the one that is in charge of getting people to verbally communicate, and she’s definitely been our best girl in regards to that this whole season.”

Donovan took a moment in May to evaluate how she felt about her collegiate softball career.

“I feel pretty good about it,” she said. “It’s bittersweet because it’s like, ‘Ready to be a big girl now,’ and then the same time, it’s like I don’t want to stop playing because I’ve been playing since I was like 5 years old. My last game here I cried because it’s the last time I’ll play on the Lancer Field. So, it’s bittersweet.”