NOTRE DAME, Ind. - UMBC's Cornelia Carapcea has been named an Academic All-American by ESPN The Magazine and the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA), the organization announced today. Carapcea, who previously received first-team All-District II honors, was a third-team Women's At-Large selection.
Carapcea, a junior tennis standout, has been a second-team All-America East selection in both singles and doubles each of the past two seasons. She posted a 12-3 record at No. 4 singles this spring and won 30 total matches on the year en route to being chosen her team's co-Most Valuable Athlete. Carapcea, who has a perfect 4.00 grade-point average in financial economics and information systems, was named to America East Commissioner's Honor Roll in 2006 and 2007 and has earned Dean's List honors in all of her five semesters at UMBC.
To be nominated for Academic All-America recognition, the student-athlete must be a starter or important reserve with at least a 3.20 cumulative grade point average (on a 4.0 scale) for his/her career. No athlete is eligible until he/she has reached sophomore athletic and academic standing at his/her current institution (thus, true freshmen, red-shirt freshmen and ineligible transfers are not eligible). In the cases of transfers, graduate students and junior college graduates, the athlete must have completed one full academic year at the nominating institution to be eligible.
CoSIDA selects Academic All-America teams in 12 programs: football, women's volleyball, men's soccer, women's soccer, men's basketball, women's basketball, baseball, softball, men's track & field/cross country, women's track & field/cross country, men's at-large and women's at-large.
Eligible sports for at-large selection are women's bowling, women's crew, men's and women's fencing, women's field hockey, men's and women's golf, men's and women's gymnastics, men's and women's ice hockey, men's and women's lacrosse, men's and women's rifle, men's and women's skiing, men's and women's swimming, men's and women's tennis, men's volleyball, men's and women's water polo and men's wrestling.
In the at-large program, nominations are limited to three per school per gender. Thus, each institution may nominate a total of three men's at-large candidates and three women's at-large candidates. If an institution participates in both the college and the university divisions, it may nominate a total of three men and three women between the two divisions. There is no limit to the number of candidates that may be nominated for a particular sport.
Carapcea joins Albany's Amber Maisonet (softball) as Academic All-America honorees from America East institutions in 2007-08.