Katie Gaal
GoSycamores.Com
St. Louis, Mo. ? The 2008 Missouri Valley Conference Scholar-Athlete Teams, announced on Friday, November 21, features three Indiana State soccer players. Junior Erin Bianchi and seniors Amanda Gogel and Alyssa Ramsey were selected to this year's MVC Scholar-Athlete Teams as voted upon by the league SID's.
Bianchi, an honorable mention selection last season, was chosen as a First Team Scholar Athlete this year. The junior nursing major from Mansfield, Ohio is the only student-athlete on the MVC Scholar Athlete Teams who boasts a perfect 4.0 grade-point average. Bianchi played in all three Sycamore MVC Tournament matches helping her team reach the MVC Championship for the first time in history.
Joining Bianchi on the MVC Scholar Athlete First Team is senior Amanda Gogel, her first-ever MVC Scholar Athlete award. Gogel, who hails from Ferdinand, Ind., features a 3.27 grade-point average in mathematics. She finished first on the team in goals, assists, and points. The speedy forward led the No. 6 seeded Sycamores to the MVC Championship tallying an assist on the game-winning goal against No. 3 Drake and registering the game-winning goal against No. 2 Illinois State. Gogel is a 2008 MVC Honorable Mention selection and was voted to the MVC All-Tournament Team.
Ramsey, a senior from Brecksville, Ohio, is a MVC Scholar Athlete Honorable Mention pick. She was also selected to the MVC Scholar Athlete Honorable Mention Team last year. The senior defender is a marketing major with a 3.68 grade-point average. Ramsey was recently voted to the 2008 MVC Second Team and to the MVC All-Tournament Team after anchoring the Sycamore defense to two 1-0 shutout wins against Drake and Illinois State in the State Farm MVC Tournament.
A total of 40 student-athletes were nominated for the Valley's scholar-athlete team. The criteria for the honor parallels the CoSIDA (College Sports Information Directors of America) standards for Academic All-America voting. Nominees must be starters or important reserves with at least a 3.00 cumulative GPA (on a 4.00 scale). Also, students must have participated in at least 75 percent of the regular-season matches. Student-athletes must have reached sophomore athletic and academic standing at their institution (true freshmen and redshirt freshmen were not eligible) and must have completed at least one full academic year at their institution.
The rest of the MVC Scholar Athlete Teams can be found at:
http://www.mvc-sports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=7600&ATCLID=3620353.
