Jan. 24, 2011

Corvallis - For the fifth consecutive term the Oregon State University volleyball team led all of the school's intercollegiate sports programs with a 3.49 combined GPA. Volleyball was joined on the 3.00-plus GPA term achievers by women's rowing, women's novice rowing, cross country and men's and women's soccer. A total of eight teams have 3.00-plus cumulative GPAs.

"While the fall term presents challenges to the first-term student-athletes particularly, OSU's student-athletes continue to demonstrate their commitment to advancing to their chosen degrees," OSU Associate Athletics Director Dr. Kate Halischak said. "Retention and graduation remain high priorities."

A total of 19 student-athletes scored perfect 4.00 GPAs for Fall term, including eight who own perfect 4.00 cumulative GPAs. Those eight individuals are Oliver Light (men's rowing), Joshua Smith (men's soccer), Ashley Molholm (women's rowing), Megan Emery (women's rowing), Krista Stangel (cross country/track), Jessica Niewoehner (women's soccer), Hannah McCulley (swimming), and Taylin Woods (volleyball).

Eighty-seven OSU student-athletes earned University Honor Roll recognition with at least a 3.50 term GPA, while 231 overall achieved the Director of Athletics' Honor Roll at 3.00 or higher. The most popular colleges for student-athletes are liberal arts (24%), health and human Sciences (22%), business (18%) and engineering (10%).

Forty-six student-athletes were recently named to the Pacific-10 Conference all-academic teams, including a league-high seven volleyball players and 14 cross country runners, and the 14 football honorees ranked second. In addition, senior Jill Sawatzky was named the league's Volleyball Scholar Athlete of the Year - she has been a Dean's List member every term of her OSU career.