Shorter University boasts six NAIA Scholar Awards
CVNSports
07-30-2010
Shorter University, on the heels of its most successful season of
intercollegiate athletic competition in school history, saw six
of its athletic programs earn NAIA Scholar Team Awards for the
2009-2010 academic year. The NAIA released its complete list of
NAIA Scholar Team Award winning schools this week.
`We are extremely proud of these teams for their academic
accomplishments,` said Shorter`s Director of Athletics Bill
Peterson, who headed up an athletic department that set school
records with 111 Academic All-Conference athletes and 23 NAIA
Scholar-Athletes in 2009-2010. It has been a great year for the
Hawks and Lady Hawks, both in the classroom and on the playing
field.
In particular, added Peterson, we are excited about our women`s tennis team and their top 10 ranking.
The Lady Hawk tennis team paced all six of Shorter`s representatives with a 3.72 team grade point average, good enough to stand in a tie for the ninth-best team GPA in the entire country.
Shorter`s men`s tennis team also garnered an NAIA Scholar Team Award with a 3.42 GPA. Head tennis coach Orville Adams saw each team advance to the Sweet 16 of the 2010 NAIA Tennis National Championship and was proud to hear of his players` latest accomplishments.
Both teams are hard working and know what it takes to be successful, said Adams, who guided both the Hawks and Lady Hawks to ninth-place national finishes in 2010. They are resilient and persistent when facing challenges and because of that, we are getting the results both on and off the court. Academically, you can see how hard they work - the results speak for themselves.
The tremendous success of Shorter`s athletes in competition and in the classroom were seamlessly linked last season, and just like the Shorter tennis teams, Shorter`s final four NAIA Scholar Team Award winners produced championship caliber play in addition to their academic excellence.
The Shorter women`s basketball team, which also finished the year ranked No. 9 in the Women`s Basketball Coaches of America (WBCA) Top 25 Team Honor Roll, garnered an NAIA Scholar Team Award with a 3.42 GPA.
On the hardwood, the Lady Hawks won 22 games - a feat that marked the first time in program history that the team has posted three straight 20-win seasons - and earned an at-large bid into the NAIA Women`s Basketball National Championship for the first time since 2001.
Shorter`s Soccer Hawks earned a Scholar Team Award with a
collective 3.16 GPA in the same season that they tied a school
record with 12 victories and also set a program record for goals
scored in a season with 55.
The women`s track and field team qualified for an NAIA Scholar
Team Award with a 3.15 team GPA. The Lady Hawks enjoyed their
most successful season on the track as well, turning in a
seventh-place finish at the NAIA Indoor National Championship in
March before posting a second straight top 10 finish at the
Outdoor National Championship with a program-best fourth-place
effort.
The Lady Hawk golf team rounded out the list of Shorter`s NAIA
Scholar Team Award winners with a 3.06 GPA. Led by fantastic
freshman Greta Lange, the Lady Hawks won the NAIA Unaffiliated
Qualifying Tournament to earn a trip to the NAIA Women`s Golf
National Championship where they finished 17th.
For a team to be considered for the NAIA Scholar Team Award, it
must have a minimum 3.0 grade point average (on a 4.0 scale) as
defined by the institution. The team grade point average must
include all varsity student-athletes certified as eligible.
By: Matt Green
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