Women's soccer nets third most Scholar-Athletes in nation

By Jacob Knabel on Dec. 1, 2017 in Women's Soccer

2017 NAIA Scholar-Athletes

SEWARD, Neb. – A consistent leader in the classroom and championship program on the field, the Concordia University women’s soccer team placed nine of its members on the list of 2017 Daktronics-NAIA Scholar-Athletes, announced on Friday (Dec. 1) by the NAIA. Seniors Leigha McConnell and Leah Shohat are repeat Scholar-Athletes while seven juniors are new to the list (see at bottom).

Head coach Greg Henson’s program has produced at least seven Scholar-Athletes in each of his five seasons with the Bulldogs. The 2013 squad finished with a NAIA best 11 Scholar-Athletes and led all collegiate women’s soccer programs in combined grade-point average. This year’s total of nine honorees tops the GPAC and ranks third nationally. The 2017 squad also won the outright GPAC regular-season title.

In order to be nominated by an institution’s head coach or sports information director, a student-athlete must maintain a minimum grade point average of 3.5 on a 4.0 scale and must have achieved a junior academic status. A total of 614 women’s soccer student-athletes across the nation were named 2017 Scholar-Athletes by the NAIA.

Concordia University ranks as the NAIA’s all-time leader in number of Daktronics-NAIA Scholar-Athletes with 1,310 and counting. The Bulldogs have been a regular national leader for both scholar-athletes and scholar-teams and are coming off a 2016-17 academic year that resulted in 78 more scholar-athletes and 19 scholar-teams. The 2015-16 season produced a GPAC best 92 Bulldog scholar-athletes and a national best 20 NAIA Scholar-Teams. The 2014-15 season culminated with GPAC-leading totals of 94 Bulldog scholar-athletes and 17 NAIA Scholar-Teams. During the 2013-14 academic year, Concordia garnered 101 Scholar-Athlete honorees (most in the NAIA) and 17 NAIA Scholar-Teams (tied for fourth nationally).

2017 Women’s Soccer Scholar-Athletes