BOSTON ? America East Conference honors its field hockey student-athletes, for the second-consecutive season, with the naming of an 11-member All-Academic Team. The awards, which are garnered by student-athletes with exceptional athletic and academic achievements, were announced on Monday (November 30).
First-team all-conference selections Ashley Ross (Lancaster, Pa./Conestoga Valley) and Arlette Westdorp (Assen, Netherlands/Dr. Nassau College) of Albany and Maegan Luce (Hartford, Vt./Hartford) of Vermont highlight the 2006 America East Field Hockey All-Academic Team, which is rounded out by eight second-team picks. Also featured on the team is Laura Dean (Bear, Del./William Penn) of Boston University, Katie Flaherty (Winslow, Maine/Winslow), Rebecca Giroux (Augusta, Maine/Cony) and Regina Legge (North Harwich, Mass./Harwich) of Maine, UMBC’s Kristi Troster (Lansdale, Pa./North Penn), Samantha Geary (Norwood, Mass./Norwood) of New Hampshire, and Kate Lipton (Newton, Mass./Newton North) and Kimberly Striegler (Whitney Point, N.Y./Whitney Point) of Vermont.
The All-Academic squads 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 post-season 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., 11 on the field for field hockey). 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.