Women's Basketball All-Academic Team Announced At Awards Reception

Women's Basketball All-Academic Team Announced At Awards Reception

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West Hartford, Conn.-- Five women's basketball players were named to the 2010 Women's Basketball All-Academic Team Thursday afternoon at the annual awards banquet on the University of Hartford campus. These student athletes, who excel both academically as well as athletically, represent the best of the America East Conference.

Highlighting the academic squad was three all-conference performers, led by first-team selection and two-time Women's Basketball Scholar-Athlete of the Year, May Kotsopoulos of University of Vermont. UMBC's Carlee Cassidy and University of Hartford's Jackie Smith were both also honored on an all-conference team as well as the all-academic team. Rounding out the five-member all-academic team was University of Maine's Kristin Baker and Hartford's Mary Silvia.

Silvia recorded the highest cumulative grade point average (GPA) with a 3.90 in entrepreneurial studies. Kotsopoulos, a business adminstration major with a 3.66 GPA was named an ESPN The Magazine Academic All-American last month.

The All-Academic squads are a product of the June 2005 Athletics Directors meeting where faculty representatives and athletics directors from each of the conference’s nine member institutions decided to honor the league’s top student-athletes, who excel equally in the classroom as they do on the playing field.

For the second straight year, America East will select the All-Academic teams using CoSIDA’s Academic All-America program as a model. Student-athletes worthy of consideration are nominated by member sports information directors and voted on by a committee of SIDs, academic advisors and faculty representatives from all nine member institutions.

All-Academic squads for team sports are based on the maximum number of athletes that participate in a contest at one time (e.g., 5 on the court in basketball) but can be more if there is a tie in voting. To be nominated for the distinction, student-athletes must be a starter or important reserve for their team and participate in at least 50 percent of their team’s games or competitions. In the classroom, student-athletes must have a 3.30 GPA and have completed at least one calendar year at their institution. Freshmen are not eligible for consideration.

2010 Women's Basketball All-Academic Team
Player    School    Class    GPA    Major    Hometown/High School

Kristin Baker    Maine    Sr.    3.61    Kinesiology & physical education    Bingham, Maine/Bingham      
Carlee Cassidy    UMBC    Sr.    3.35    Sociology/New media & comm.    Syracuse, N.Y./Westhill
May Kotsopoulos    Vermont    Sr.    3.66    Business admin. (Marketing)    Waterloo, Ontario/Waterloo Coll.
Mary Silvia    Hartford    Jr.    3.90    Entrepreneurial studies    Reading, Mass./Reading Memorial
Jackie Smith    Hartford    Jr.    3.61    Elementary & special education    Westfield, Mass./Holyoke