USC Women Athletes Earn Academic Honors

<p>Most of D-1 women's sports are governed by the NCAA. Sand volleyball is an "emerging" sport and is run by the AVCA. The following women have earned high academic honors from either the Pac-12 or their sport's national organization.</p>

<p>Topping the list is USC's women's golf team. Not only did the team win this year's national championship, but also four scholar-athletes were WGCA All American Scholars for Division I. These four had GPA averages above 3.5.
Kyung Kim
Rachel Morris
Sophia Popov
Kim Santiago</p>

<p>Women's lacrosse is a new sport at USC. All-Academic Scholar Athletes for 2013 were:
Celildh Meagher
Kaitlyn Couture
Kaila Sommi</p>

<p>Eight women rowers received All-Academic honors:
Melanie Grindle
Vineta Moca
Lauren Liedel
Elizabeth Turner
Hannah Bowen
Jennah Blau
Elaine Krebs
Eglit Vosu</p>

<p>Melanie Grindle was awarded one of the Pac-12's postgraduate scholarships as well as named the Pac-12 Athlete of the Year. She had a 3.63 GPA from the Marshall School of Business and will attend Columbia University's Law School in the fall.</p>

<p>Women's tennis had two women receive All Academic honors. They are Zoe Scandalis and Gabrielle DeSimone.</p>

<p>The women's water polo team also won the national championship for 2013. Four team members were selected All Academic Scholar-Athletes. They are Flora Bolonyai, Madeline Rosenthal, Chelsea Silvers and Monica Vavic. Flora Bolonyai was also named a Capital One All American First Team. Chelsea Silvers was honored with a Pac-12 post graduate scholarship. Chelsea is an honors graduate of the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.</p>

<p>USC's women's cross country team had six Trojans named to the All Academic team. They are: Shannon Byrne, Datie DeYoung, Erin Matranga, Erin Robinson, Kira Soderstrom
and Kelly Owen.</p>

<p>The track and field team had eighteen Women of Troy who earned academic honors:. Jackie Dion and Thea Weiss had outstanding records. Weiss earned a 3.94 GPA in biological and biomedical studies. Dion had a 3.93 in multi-disciplinary studies. Others named were:
Caroline Lutzky
Candace Bailey
Kathy Chang
Farren Benjamin
Alexis Brown
Erica Capellino
Alexandra Collatz
Kiana Henry
Jennifer Jones
Kathryn Karkut
Austin Lundin
Kelly Owen
Jenna Puterbaugh
Kira Soderstrom
Jennifer Stutland
Natalia Williams</p>

<p>When the other teams release names I will add them to the list.</p>