Naperville, Ill—South Carolina State soccer players Janine Francois and Talitha Wood have been named to the Great West Conference (GWC) 2009 Fall Academic All-Conference Team as announced by the league recently.

 

Francois a 5-2 senior forward/mid-fielder (Trinidad/Couva Government Secondarie) is a business management major with a cumulative grade point average of 3.351; while Wood, also 5-2 and a redshirt senior mid-fielder (Nassau, Bahamas/Binghamton University), is a biology major with a cumulative grade point average of 3.219.

 

The pair, who helped SC State to a 10-7-3 campaign -- first winning record in the 11-year history of the program -- earlier, was named to the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) Commissioner's All-Academic Team.

 

“I am very proud of Talitha and Janine for getting this honor,” said second year head coach Glad Bugariu.  “This program is dedicated to academic excellence and these players are excellent examples of the term student-athlete.  They have word extremely hard for this honor and they have been a pleasure to work.”  Bugariu continued, “Both will graduate in May and will have a fantastic future.”

 

The 2009 GWC Fall Academic All-Conference team consisted of 171 GWC athletes with classification of redshirt-freshman through seniors with a minimum cumulative 3.2 grade point average.  The athletes also must have participated in at least 50 percent of their respective team's contests. Making up this year's team are 48 football players, 24 men's cross-country runners, 26 women's cross-country runners, 28 volleyball and 45 women's soccer players (two from SC State).

 

The Lady Bulldog 2009 soccer team was comprised of mostly freshman student-athletes, who where not eligible to receive the honor.  However, out of 16 newcomers on the tea squad, 11 had a perfect 4.0 grade point average.

 

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