July 20, 2010

Women’s Basketball Finishes in Top 25 in WBCA Team Honor Roll

ATLANTA, Ga. – Northern Arizona women’s basketball ranks No. 13 in the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) 2009-10 Academic Top 25 Team Honor Roll that was released on Tuesday. The award is given to teams throughout the nation that carry the highest grade point averages (GPA) for the entire season based on the nomination submitted by WBCA-member head coaches.

Under Head Coach Laurie Kelly, the Lumberjacks have finished in the Top 25 in the WBCA Team Honor Roll five times in the last seven years. The team posted a 3.425 GPA and turned in its highest finish since the 2005-06 season.

“It is great for our program and student-athletes to be recognized on such an elite list of schools,” Kelly said. “To achieve a 3.4 GPA in the classroom and be ranked 13th in the nation is a great accomplishment. It is a testament to how well our team balances its priorities.”

We have always prided ourselves on bringing in quality students. We have a large group of young kids and our upperclassmen have set the precedent that 3.0 is a minimum for us. In a season where we struggled on the court, this is an excellent achievement for our student-athletes who continued to work hard throughout the year.”

GPAs are calculated by dividing the total number of quality points earned by each student-athlete on an institution's roster in the given academic terms by the total number of hours earned by the team. The GPAs are rounded to the nearest thousandth of a point. Per a motion passed by the WBCA Board of Directors in 2007, teams making the list of Academic Top 25 Team Honor Roll must obtain at least a 3.000 overall GPA.

Founded in 1981, the WBCA promotes women’s basketball by unifying coaches at all levels to develop a reputable identity for the sport and to foster and promote the development of the game as a sport for women and girls. For additional information about the WBCA, please visit wbca.org.

The WBCA Academic Top 25 Team Honor Roll for NCAA Division I is as follows:

Rank	School	Head Coach	Team GPA
1.	Utah Valley University	Cathy Nixon	3.630
2.	South Dakota State University	Aaron Johnston	3.622
3.	University of Maryland, Baltimore County	Phil Stern	3.578
4.	Indiana State University	Teri Moren	3.508
5.	Creighton University	Jim Flanery	3.506
6.	Bowling Green State University	Curt Miller	3.500
7.	University of Northern Iowa	Tanya Warren	3.464
8.	DePaul University	Douglas Bruno	3.455
9.	Lipscomb University	Frank Bennett	3.452
10.	University of North Dakota	Gene Roebuck	3.442
11.	University of New Mexico	Don Flanagan	3.433
12.	North Dakota State University	Carolyn DeHoff	3.427
13.	Northern Arizona University	Laurie Kelly	3.425
14.	Bucknell University	Kathy Fedorjaka	3.422
15.	Monmouth University	Stephanie Gaitley	3.412
16.	University of South Dakota	Ryun Williams	3.368
17.	Saint Bonaventure University	Jim Crowley	3.354
18.	University of Northern Colorado	Jaime White	3.351
19.	University of Denver	Erik Johnson	3.342
20.	Seattle University	Joan Bonvicini	3.341
21.	University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee	Sandy Botham	3.340
22.	Eastern Washington University	Wendy Schuller	3.328
23.	University of Hartford	Jennifer Rizzotti	3.321
24.	Oakland University	Beckie Francis	3.318
25.	Cornell University	Dayna Smith	3.308

DID YOU KNOW…Student-athletes, coaches and athletic department staff combined to volunteer more than 4,500 hours over the 2009-10 academic year, assisting with events like Red Ribbon Week, Relay for Life, Welcome Back Jacks, St. Mary’s Food Bank, Adopt a Family, Climb to Conquer Cancer. In all, the department participated with more than 20 different organizations and/or events.