Three Horizon League players earn women's soccer Academic All-America recognition
Nov. 21, 2006
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Indianapolis, Ind. -- Three of the Horizon League's best women's soccer players proved they can compete with the nation's elite in the classroom as well as on the field. University of Detroit Mercy senior Mary Parker and University of Wisconsin-Green Bay senior Stephanie Gross have been named to the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) First-Team Academic All-America unit, sponsored by ESPN the Magazine, while University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee senior Ginny Graczyk was a Second-Team selection.
Parker earned Horizon League Player of the Year honors this fall, topping the circuit with 17 goals and 40 points. In winning the award for the second time in her career (the first coming in 2004), she also became only the fourth player to earn First-Team All-League honors in four consecutive seasons and the first to be a four-time All-Tournament selection at the League Championship. Parker paced the Titans to the final match of this year's League Championship, and either scored or set up 23 of the team's 29 goals in 2006. Her 111 career points (47 goals and 17 assists) rank sixth on the all-time League charts.
Gross earned a spot on the All-League First team for the third year in a row, finishing with 32 points (13 goals and six assists) in her final campaign. Gross is the only player in Phoenix history to tally 30 goals and 20 assists in her career, while her 89 career points (34 goals, 21 helpers) rank third in the school's record books. Her 13 goals this season ranked among the top 20 players in the nation, earning First-Team All-League honors for the third time.
Graczyk played every minute of every game for a UW-Milwaukee defense that posted a school-record 16 shutouts and ranked fifth in the nation with a school-standard 0.44 goals-against average. The two-time First-Team Academic All-District V selection earned First-Team All-League honors for the third time in 2006 after helping the Panthers to the regular-season League title with an unblemished 7-0-0 loop ledger.
In the classroom, Parker carries a 3.80 grade-point average as a biology and pre-med major, and has won Horizon League Scholar-Athlete of the Week recognition three times. Gross owns a 3.83 GPA in her studies as a human development/psychology major, while Graczyk has a 3.87 GPA as a health sciences/psychology major. All three won Academic All-League notice in 2005, with this year's academic honors set to be announced next Thursday (Nov. 30).
Academic All-America of the Year Heather O'Reilly of the University of North Carolina headlined the First Team, with Gross and Miami (Ohio) University senior Kathleen Vistica on the forward line. Joining Parker in the midfield were Courtney Hulcer of Saint Louis University and Lindsey Ozimek from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. The defense includes Stanford University's Rachel Buehler, Seton Hall University's Jen Michewicz, the University of Notre Dame's Ashley Jones and Amy Seng from the University of Louisville. Sophomore goalkeeper Lizzie Barnes from the U.S. Naval Academy was the lone underclassman on the top unit.
Note: The CoSIDA/ESPN the Magazine Academic All-America teams can be found in the PDF version of this release.
