UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Penn State women’s soccer senior midfielder Jordan Fusco capped off a decorated collegiate career by landing one of the highest academic accolades in the country, garnering College Sports Communicators Second Team Academic All-America laurels in the organization’s release Wednesday.
CSC seeks to honor and celebrate student-athletes who represent the highest caliber of academic and athletic achievement through the annual Academic All-District and Academic All-America programs. The Nittany Lions placed six student-athletes on the Academic All-District Team earlier this year and has landed at least one CSC Academic All-American in every season since the 2017 campaign.
Penn State was one of 25 institutions to have a student-athlete selected as an Academic All-American and was one of just five Big Ten Conference member institutions to land at least one representative on the CSC Academic All-America Teams. Minnesota led the league with a trio of picks, highlighted by the B1G’s lone First Team honoree in Sophia Boman in addition to Elizabeth Overberg and Khyah Harper. PSU’s Fusco, Michigan State’s Justina Gaynor, USC’s Laurence Gladu and Ohio State’s Kailyn Dudukovich rounded out the B1G honorees.
Following a trio of elite seasons as an attacking midfielder at the University of Tennessee, Fusco arrived in Happy Valley for her final year of collegiate eligibility and made an immediate and indelible impact on the Nittany Lion program during the 2024 campaign. Fusco had a career year while leading the Nittany Lions to the national quarterfinals for the second year in a row, starting and playing a career-best 25 matches while leading PSU to 15 wins in addition to the program’s 30th consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance and eighth-straight Sweet 16. Fusco shattered her career high with 12 assists and added a trio of goals for a career-high 18-point scoring season. The Olmsted Township, Ohio, native recorded the most assists in a single season by a Nittany Lion since current NWSL starter and U.S. Women’s National Team midfielder Sam Coffey booked 12 in the Blue & White during the COVID-adjusted 2020-21 spring campaign.
Over the course of her four years in the women’s college game, Fusco appeared in 86 career matches with 78 starts, amassing an astonishing 56 points split between 17 goals and 22 assists. Fusco consistently cemented herself as one of the sport’s most impressive attacking players, notching 5,705 minutes played since her debut against Florida Gulf Coast on August 19, 2021, during her freshman year at Tennessee. Fusco tallied five collegiate match-winning goals, highlighted by her final match-winning score in Penn State’s season opening win over the Texas Tech Red Raiders on August 15 of this year in Happy Valley.
Fusco has collected a wide array of accolades over the course of her collegiate career, pairing her first career CSC Academic All-America honor with additional recognition as a CSC Academic All-District selection earlier this month. Fusco was named a United Soccer Coaches Second Team All-North Region honoree, picked up Second Team All-Big Ten honors and was recognized as a member of TopDrawerSoccer’s National Team of the Week earlier in the 2024 campaign. Fusco picked up the 24th selection to the CSC Academic All-America team in Penn State women's soccer history and became the ninth honoree to book Second Team recognition.
Established in 1952 and selected by College Sports Communicators, Academic All-America is the longest-running and premier award for athletic and academic success across championship college sports at all NCAA levels, the NAIA, two-year colleges and Canadian institutions. Teams are announced year-round and amplified by CSC member colleges, universities, and conferences on a wide local, regional, national, and even international scope.
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