Feb. 7, 2008

GREENSBORO, N.C. - The tradition of excellence continues in Atlantic Coast Conference women's soccer as the 2007 All-ACC Academic Team features a star-power contingent that includes an NSCAA Scholar Athlete of the Year, 10 all-conference selections, five NSCAA and/or Soccer Buzz All-Americans, four NSCAA Scholar All-Americans, two CoSIDA Academic All-Americans, a Soccer America Freshman of the Year, an ACC Defensive Player of the Year and an ACC Freshman of the Year, announced today by Commissioner John D. Swofford. All 11 schools in the league competing in women's soccer are represented on the team.

To be eligible for consideration, a student-athlete must have earned a 3.00 grade point average for the previous semester and maintained a 3.00 cumulative average during her academic career.

NCAA Women's Soccer College Cup runner-up Florida State and ACC champion North Carolina each featured six academic selections to lead all schools. Duke and Miami followed with five apiece, while Clemson notched four picks and Boston College, Virginia Tech and Wake Forest each earned three. Both Maryland and Virginia collected a pair and NC State rounded out the 40-member squad with one nod.

This year's academic team boasts 22 student-athletes who received national accolades, all-conference honors or both. Virginia defender Becky Sauerbrunn, who was named NSCAA Scholar Athlete of the Year, NSCAA Scholar All-America, NSCAA and Soccer Buzz All-America, ACC Defensive Player of the Year and First Team All-ACC, leads the decorated unit that also includes 14 All-Region honorees and nine All-Region Freshmen.

In addition, eight of the 11 rookies earned Freshmen All-America status in 2007. Highlighting the rookie pack are Soccer America Freshman of the Year and Soccer Buzz All-American Sanna Talonen from Florida State and Soccer Buzz All-American and ACC Freshman of the Year Brittany Steinbruch of Miami.

Returning to the academic team this year are 21 repeat honorees with 14 from 2006. Seven others who have been recognized every year since the inception of the academic award in 2005-06 include Duke's Christie McDonald, Florida State's Katrin Schmidt, North Carolina's Averbuch, NC State's Tami Krzeszewski, Virginia's Becky Sauerbrunn, and Virginia Tech's Heather Hallberg and Ashley Kinser.

The 2007 All-ACC Academic Women's Soccer team is as follows: