March 18, 2008
University Park, Pa. - After a season that saw one of the finest performances ever in the postseason for a Penn State field hockey squad, the Nittany Lion field hockey team had perhaps one of its finest ever seasons in the classroom as well as a school record 14 members of the field hockey team were named to the ZAG/National Field Hockey Coaches Association (NFHCA) National Academic Squad. The NFHCA annually recognizes outstanding work in the classroom by members of field hockey teams throughout the country.
Making this year's ZAG/NFHCA National Academic Squad from the Nittany Lions were Gina Bartolacci, Jen Beaumont, Amy Bonenberger, Laura Cahill, Sarah Dickens, Cindy Donald, Britney Long, Jen Long, Bethany Marvel, Ali Meves, Jen Miller, Jenny Purvis, Allison Scola and Daneen Zug. This year's 14 Nittany Lion honorees on the squad tops the 13 that made it after the 2005 season and the 12 that made it last year. This marks the fourth straight year that Britney Long has been honored on the Academic Squad while Jen Long, Miller and Scola all made it for the third straight season.
These academic honors follow another solid year for the Nittany Lion field hockey squad on the Academic All-Big Ten teams that were announced at the end of the fall seasons. A total of 11 field hockey student-athletes were named to the Academic All-Big Ten teams this year, marking the eighth straight season that the Nittany Lions have had 10 or more members named to the Academic All-Big Ten squad, the only school in the conference that can claim that. Those 11 on the Academic All-Big Ten team helped set a school record 81 total Penn State student-athletes on the fall Academic All-Big Ten teams, breaking the old mark of 78.
Penn State also has a 100 percent graduation rate in the field hockey program according to the latest NCAA Graduation Success Rate Report that was released last fall. This was the third straight year that field hockey earned a perfect 100 percent graduation rate in the NCAA GSR report.
Additionally, the Nittany Lion team was also a recipient of a ZAG/NFHCA Division I National Academic Team Award, which goes to all teams that compiled a team grade point average of 3.0 or higher during the fall semester. Penn State was one of 58 teams in Division I to be awarded a National Academic Team Award.