Four America East field hockey programs were honored last week with the 2009 Gladiator by SBI/NFHCA Division I National Academic Team Award for achieving a team GPA of 3.0 or higher. In addition, 38 student-athletes representing all six of the league's teams were named individually to the Division I National Academic Squad.
University at Albany, the 2009 America East regular season champion, Fairfield University, University of Maine and University of Vermont were four of the 58 squads tabbed National Academic Teams by the coaches' organization.
Fairfield and Maine each had eight individual recipients, while Vermont had seven. Albany had six players honored, followed by America East tournament champion Boston University's six and University of New Hampshire's four.
Off the 38 individuals honored, seven were designated 4-year award recipients for receiving the award every year of their collegiate careers. Receiving that special honor were Fairfield's Carly McCullough, Maine's Mallory Anderson and Mallory Pollard, New Hampshire's Cally Cooke, and Vermont's Kristen Heavens, Megan Maynard and Chelsea Stevenson.