12 Women’s Soccer Players Named All-Academic Big Sky

BIG SKY RELEASE (PDF)

OGDEN, Utah – Northern Arizona’s women’s soccer team has a conference-best 12 members on the Fall Big Sky All-Academic team. All 12 of the award recipients are underclassmen, and eight of the honorees have been named Big Sky All-Academic before. To be eligible for the award, a student-athlete must participate in at least half of the team’s competitions, achieve a 3.2 or higher cumulative grade point average (on a 4.0 scale) at the conclusion of the most recently completed term and have completed at least one academic term at his/her current Big Sky institution.

Headlining the All-Academic selections is junior Kristi Andreassen, who in November became the first Northern Arizona women’s soccer All-American when she was named to the ESPN the Magazine Academic All-America Second Team. That honor was achieved after she was named to the All-District Academic First Team, where she was joined by teammate Rebekah Schmidt after the junior defender was named to the All-District Second Team. Both Andreassen and Schmidt have been named Big Sky All-Academic in each of their first-three seasons at Northern Arizona.

Juniors Brenna Boies, Brandy Carr, Anna Clark and Tori Howe were also named Big Sky All-Academic, with Carr and Clark also receiving the award for the third time. Sophomores Ally Cwiekowski, Ashley Marrapode, Tori Rocke, Jenna Samora and Lauren Zallis also earned the accolade, while freshman Laura Johnson received her first All-Academic honor.

In addition to leading all Big Sky soccer teams in All-Academic selections, the NAU women’s soccer team also had the most selections of all Northern Arizona fall sports. All 12 selections, 8 of which were starters in 2009, will return in 2010 and aim for their third-consecutive Big Sky championship.