The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) awards the Scholar-Athlete honor to student-athletes that are a junior or higher academically and hold a 3.5 grade point average. The Southern States Athletic Conference (SSAC) gives all-academic recognition to sophomores or older with a 3.25 grade point average.
In addition to NAIA and SSAC honors, Jamie Achten of the women’s soccer team was selected as the Capital One/CoSIDA Academic All-America® of the year for the women’s soccer college division.
The volleyball and women’s soccer teams each led the way with five NAIA honors each. Seniors Stephanie Todd, Gretchen Higdon, Sarah Smith, Christa Hutchison, and Courtney Culbreath represent the volleyball squad. Hutchison was also joined by senior Arlene Ferreira, sophomore Irene Ojukwu, and freshman Marija Zelenovic on the NAIA All-American Honorable Mention list.
Senior Achten was joined by fellow Lady Flames soccer players, juniors Kim Conrad, Caroline Scales, Clair Lanter, and Amy Cochran, earning the national honor.
Senior Gilbert Ruiz and junior Sias Reyneke represent the men’s soccer team with scholar-athlete honors, while Maggie Opelt was the winner from the Lee cross country squads.
The 13 national winners were joined by 13 more conference winners, led by the Lady Flames soccer team. Danielle Ciabattone, Elyse Cottrell, Ali Eisnaugle, Leah Fortune, Katelyn Hurst, Stephanie Surgener, Lauren Welch, and Leah Wilson were all named SSAC All-Conference.
From the volleyball team, the five national winners were joined by Becky Bourne and Kelsey Leffew. Men’s soccer team captains Mohamed Aden and Luke Cuthbert, and junior Ashley Matthews of the women’s cross country team were also named to the SSAC All-Academic team.
