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Ten Earn Academic All-Big 12 Award
November 01, 2016 02:09 PM | Women's Soccer
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Ten from the No. 1-ranked West Virginia University women’s soccer team were named to the 2016 Academic All-Big 12 Soccer Team, the league office announced today.
The 10 honors match the program’s second-best total since joining the conference in 2012; the Mountaineers tallied 11 honors in 2014.
Of the 10 honorees, senior defender Carly Black (exercise physiology) and sophomore defenders Bianca St. Georges (exercise physiology) and Easther Mayi Kith (exercise physiology) earned the recognition with 4.00 grade point averages (GPAs). They were three of 18 from the conference to boast a 4.00 GPA.
The trio are three of eight Mountaineers to land on the first team. Senior Ashley Woolpert (exercise physiology), junior Michaela Abam (athletic coaching education) and sophomores Hannah Abraham (exercise physiology), Vanessa Flores (exercise physiology) and Sh’Nia Gordon (undergraduate studies) also earned the award. The honor was the first career recognition for all but Black, who scored her third first-team accolade.
Additionally, seniors Kadeisha Buchanan (multidisciplinary studies) and Ashley Lawrence (sport & exercise psychology) were named to the second team for the second straight season; they each have earned three career awards.
“As a staff, we stress success in the classroom just as much as we stress success on the game field,” Mountaineer coach Nikki Izzo-Brown said. “I’m so happy to see these players honored for their hard work and dedication to academic excellence.”
In total, 106 student-athletes were honored by the Big 12 Conference, with 92 players landing on the first team.
First team members consist of those who have maintained a 3.20 or better GPA while the second team selections hold a 3.00 to 3.19 GPA.
To qualify, student-athletes must maintain a 3.00 GPA or higher either cumulative or the two previous semesters and must have participated in 60 percent of their team’s scheduled contests. Freshmen and transfers are not eligible in their first year of academic residence. Senior student-athletes who have participated for a minimum of two years and meet all the criteria except percent of participation also are eligible.
The five-time reigning Big 12 Conference regular-season champion Mountaineers open the 2016 Big 12 Soccer Championship with quarterfinal action on Wednesday, Nov. 2. Top-seeded WVU faces No. 8-seed Texas Tech at 12:30 p.m. ET, at Swope Soccer Village, in Kansas City, Missouri.
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