COLLEGE STATION, Texas - The Texas A&M Aggies were honored for their scholastic endeavors as they garnered the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) Team Academic Award. The organization announced its list of honorees for the 2013-14 academic year on Monday.
For a team to be considered for the NSCAA Team Academic Award, it must have a composite team GPA of at least 3.0 (on a 4.0 scale) for all team members who appear on the official NCAA roster forms for the fall season (2013). Coach G Guerrieri's squad earned the award for the fourth consecutive year, logging a 3.21 GPA for Fall 2013 and Spring 2014.
"We are very pleased that his has become a regular occurrence and an expectation for this team,” Guerrieri said. “The players continue to make us proud with their work in the classroom. This is an important honor because it's an academic award and it's a team award. We embrace both of those things in our program, so it is great for them to be recognized for it."
The Aggies' academic standing was buoyed by outstanding performances in the classroom by then-juniors Leigh Edwards, Shea Groom, Annie Kunz and Meghan Streight and then-sophomores Janae Cousineau and Karlie Mueller who all met the qualifications to be nominated for the Capital One Academic All-America team, as they each owned a cumulative GPA of 3.30 or higher, appeared in at least 50 percent of the team's games and were enrolled in class for at Texas A&M for at least one year.
In 2013, Groom and Streight were named to the 13-member NSCAA Scholar All-America First Team. Groom and Streight also earned NSCAA Scholar All-South Region First Team accolades while Edwards and Kunz were named to NSCAA Scholar All-South Region Second Team.
Last year's squad experienced success on the field as well as in the classroom, finishing with an 18-5-2 record and earning the school's first SEC crowns with a share of the regular-season title and a 2-1 win over Florida in the SEC Tournament championship match.
This season, Texas A&M is in the midst of one of its most successful seasons, owning a 21-2-2 overall record – the 21 victories setting a school single-season record. The Aggies won the SEC regular-season title and SEC Tournament crown, becoming the first team since Florida in 2001 claim the double in back-to-back seasons.
The Maroon and White are playing in their 20th consecutive NCAA Championship and have advanced to the NCAA Quarterfinal for the fifth time in school history. The Aggies host Penn State in an 'Elite Eight' match at Ellis Field on Saturday evening.
Aggies Earn NSCAA Team Academic Award
The Texas A&M Aggies were honored for their scholastic endeavors as they garnered the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) Team Academic Award. The organization announced its list of honorees for the 2013-14 academic year on Monday.