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News Release

UMBC SOFTBALL’S DANA SHEPHERD EARNS ACADEMIC ALL-DISTRICT FIRST TEAM HONORS

5/11/2006

Dana Shepherd advances to the national competition for Academic All-America recognition.

Baltimore, Md.-UMBC sophomore shortstop Dana Shepherd (Columbia, Md./Oakland Mills) earned ESPN the Magazine Academic All-District II University Division First Team honors, the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) announced Thursday. Shepherd now advances to the national competition, where she will compete with members of each all-district first team for Academic All-America recognition.

Shepherd is the first UMBC softball player to garner academic all-district awards since Christy Sheppard in 2003.

A 2006 America East all-conference second-team selection, Shepherd has topped her outstanding numbers from her freshman campaign, when she was named to the league’s all-rookie team. The shortstop, who has started 63 games this year, ranks among the conference’s best in most offensive categories, including batting average (.343), runs scored (48), hits (71), RBI (46), home runs (7) and total bases (107), all career highs, and she is second on the team in hits and runs. In addition, she has stolen 16 bases on the season, second-best on the team, as well as nine doubles and three triples. Shepherd put together a team-best 20-game hitting streak this season, the third longest in UMBC history. She has posted a .517 slugging percentage and a .390 on-base average.

Just a sophomore, she has already made her way into the top 15 all-time at UMBC in hits (134), home runs (12), extra-base hits (37) and RBI (81). Last season she became just the third Retriever freshman ever to amass 60 or more hits in a season.

Shepherd excels in the classroom, as well. The financial economics major has posted a 3.79 cumulative grade-point average and has earned a 4.0 GPA in two of her three completed semesters at UMBC. She has earned semester academic honors and Dean’s List twice, and she was named to the America East Honor Roll last spring.

The Academic All-District II team in the university division consists of one catcher, four infielders, three outfielders and two pitchers from Division-I schools in Delaware, Washington, D.C., Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.

The Retrievers are 45-19 overall and 11-10 in the America East, earning their first-ever America East Championships berth since joining the conference in 2004. Third-seeded UMBC fell to second-seeded Albany, 8-0, in the first game of the four-team double elimination tournament and will take on the loser of this afternoon’s game between No. 1 Maine and No. 4 Boston U.