BOSTON ? For the second-consecutive season America East Conference honors its volleyball student-athletes with the naming of a six-member All-Academic Team. The awards, which are garnered by student-athletes with exceptional athletic and academic achievements, were handed out at the conference’s annual awards banquet on Friday (November 17).
Remarkably, all six members of the All-Academic team were also first-team all-conference selections. The team is headlined by three-time America East Player and Setter of the Year Blair Buchanan (Muncie, Ind./Delta) from Albany. She is joined on the first team by a pair of Great Danes ? Ashley DeNeal (Muncie, Ind./Delta) and Shelby Goldman (Whitby, Ontario/Anderson Collegiate). Binghamton’s Megan Hoag (Brunswick, Ohio/Padua Franciscan) and Jacki Kane (Centennial, Colo./Grandview) and New Hampshire’s Sarah Rehn (Oceanside, Calif./Vista) were also selected to the squad.
The All-Academic teams are a product of the June 2005 Athletics Director meetings. Faculty representatives and athletics directors from each of the conference’s nine member institutions decided to honor some of the league’s top athletes that are also quality students.
The All-Academic Team has been selected based on the student-athlete’s academic and athletic accomplishments. Academic achievement for consideration requires student-athletes to have a minimum cumulative grade-point average of 3.00 entering the season. Athletically, student-athletes are required to be a nomination on the postseason awards ballot, which is determined by the league’s head coaches. Team size for team sports is based on the number of athletes that participate in a contest at one time (e.g., six on the court for volleyball). In the event that the number of student-athletes meeting the requirements is greater than the number that participate in a contest at one time, all-conference vote totals were used as the tie-breaking criteria. Freshmen are not eligible for the all-academic teams and grade-point averages are taken from the semester prior to the competing athletic season.