UMBC

Head coach Phil Stern

ATLANTA— The UMBC women's basketball team was recognized on the Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) Academic Top 25 Team Honor Roll on Tuesday for posting the third-highest grade-point average in the nation among NCAA Division I squads during the 2009-10 academic year.

“Our team GPA really shows our young ladies’ ability to perform at a high level in the classroom at an honors university,” head coach Phil Stern said. “Our goal every year is to recruit student-athletes that understand that academics is our No. 1 priority, and I’m proud of the effort of each and every one of our players.”

The Retrievers’ 3.578 mark ranked third among Division I schools to only Utah Valley (3.630) and South Dakota State (3.622) and was the 13th-highest GPA in the country among all divisions. Division II Michigan Tech posted the top overall team GPA (3.732).

The No. 3 ranking is the highest ever by an America East school. The previous high of No. 7 was achieved by Maine in the 1999-2000 academic year and matched by Binghamton in 2001-02. UMBC’s 3.578 cumulative team GPA is also the highest by a conference school since the WBCA began recognizing the top 25 in 1998, bettering the Bearcats’ 3.412 in 2001-02.

Earlier this month, the America East Conference recognized all 11 women’s basketball student-athletes on the league’s winter/spring academic honor roll for earning a GPA of 3.0 or better during the spring semester, with seven team members garnering commissioner’s honor roll status for a GPA of 3.5 or higher. Furthermore, three Retrievers posted a 4.0 in the spring, with junior guard Michele Brokans (Lansdale, Pa.) earning a perfect mark in both the fall and spring terms.

In addition, the team’s lone senior – guard Carlee Cassidy (Syracuse, N.Y.) – earned her degree in May, along with junior forward Meghan Colabella (Upper Montclair, N.J.), who graduated magna cum laude in just three years and will attend graduate school at UMBC during the 2010-11 season while competing on the court with the Retrievers.

Cassidy was tabbed to the 2010 America East All-Academic Team after also earning the honor in 2008, while Colabella was named to the conference’s All-Academic squad in 2009. Colabella also earned UMBC’s History Department Achievement Award during Student Recognition Week in May. 

“We’re extremely proud of the women’s basketball team members,” UMBC director of athletics Dr. Charles Brown said. “It’s a great honor to be ranked third nationally among all Division I schools in team GPA, and it’s a testimony for how hard this team has worked both on the court and in the classroom.”

UMBC, which is appearing in the top 25 for the first time, is one of two schools from the America East to qualify for the honor, as Hartford ranks 23rd with a 3.321 cumulative GPA. In addition, the Retrievers are the only Division I program from the state of Maryland to make the list.

Women’s basketball edged women’s tennis (3.47) for UMBC’s highest team GPA in 2009-10.

The WBCA recognizes teams throughout the nation that carry the highest grade-point averages for the entire season with inclusion on the Academic Top 25 Team Honor Roll. The award is given to schools in each of the five WBCA collegiate divisions – NCAA Divisions I, II and III, NAIA and Junior College/Community College.

“Congratulations to these teams who have excelled academically during the 2009-10 school year," WBCA CEO Beth Bass said. “Each of these coaches set an extraordinary example for their peers to follow by holding academics in such high esteem with their student-athletes.”

Nominations for the team honor roll are submitted by WBCA-member head coaches. GPAs are calculated by dividing the total number of quality points earned by each student-athlete on an institution's roster in the given academic terms by the total number of hours earned by the team. The GPAs are rounded to the nearest thousandth of a point. Per a motion passed by the WBCA Board of Directors in 2007, teams making the list of Academic Top 25 Team Honor Roll must obtain at least a 3.000 overall GPA.