Women's Soccer Earns NSCAA Team Academic, Ethics Awards
Pacers only team from CSAC to earn academic honor
Marywood's women's soccer team earned Team Academic and Ethics awards from the NSCAA Monday
Scranton, PA - For the fifth consecutive year, and sixth time overall, the Marywood University women's soccer team has earned the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) Team Academic Award. The award is given annually to programs that achieve a team grade point average of 3.0 or higher. Marywood was the only CSAC soccer team, men's or women's, to earn the honor. The Pacers also earned the NSCAA Team Ethics Silver Award for the third consecutive year.
Marywood, who finished as the 2009 Conference Runners-Up after going unbeaten (9-0-1) during the Conference regular season, posted a 3.23 grade point average for the 2008-2009 academic year. "This is a great honor for our program and we are excited that it is the fifth year in a row we have been able to earn it" Head Coach Andrew Smith said. "It shows that success on the field and in the classroom can be maintained on a consistent basis. Our players work extremely hard in both arenas and this is great recognition for their efforts."
In all, 567 teams (141 men, 326 women) were honored with the academic award. Only 97 schools had both programs honored. Marywood has earned the Team Academic Award on five other occasions, the first of which came in 2002. Since 2005, the Pacers, who finished the 2009 campaign with a 14-3-1 record, have won the award each year.
The Ethics Award is given to teams that do not accumulate any red cards. The Gold Award is given to teams that do not receive a card all season. The Silver Award, which Marywood earned, is given to teams who get 1-5 yellow cards and no red cards. The Bronze award recognizes anyone with 6-10 cards but no red cards. The Pacers, who have now received the Ethics Silver Award for three consecutive years, had only three yellow cards in 18 games.