MANAHAWKIN, N.J. —The Slippery Rock University field hockey team was one of just 13 programs in all of Division II to earn the National Field Hockey Coaches Association National Academic Team Award, the NFHCA announced.
The NFHCA National Academic Team Award recognizes programs that earned a team GPA of 3.5 or higher during the fall semester of the current academic year.
A perennial contender for the nation's top team GPA over the last decade, Slippery Rock finished just outside of the top three this season with a team GPA of 3.54.
American International led Division II with a 3.76 GPA and was followed in the top three by Lincoln Memorial (3.74) and Mercy (3.69).
A total of 15 of Slippery Rock's 24 rostered student-athletes from the 2024 season have earned an individual academic award from the NFHCA over the last two weeks.
Julia Boettler,
Grace Burker,
Bailee Christman,
Riley Cloude,
Leslie Colliver,
Haley Metcalf,
Roz Mikulak,
Emily Newton,
Leah Riegling,
Megan Rude,
Hazara Sandhu,
Paige Shannon,
Madison Shomo,
Feli Stockler and
Haylie Sucharski were all named to the NFHCA National Academic Squad for achieving a cumulative GPA of 3.5 or higher. Nine SRU student-athletes athletes achieved a 4.0 GPA during the fall semester.
The Rock's 15 honorees, or 62.5 percent of its 2024 roster, is an improvement over its 13 selections – 61.9 percent of roster – from the 2023-24 season. Across the nation, Slippery Rock was sixth place in Division II, and third in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference, in total number of National Academic Squad honorees.
Additionally, Burker, Christman, Colliver, Metcalf, Mikulak, Riegling, Sandhu, Stockler and Sucharski were also named NFHCA Scholars of Distinction for having a cumulative of at least 3.9 in addition to earning National Academic Squad accolades.
Throughout all divisions of the NCAA (I, II, III), only Monmouth University (12), Middlebury College, Shenandoah University (12), Michigan State University (11) and the University of Louisville (11), had more athletes named Scholars of Distinction for the 2024 season than The Rock.
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