Salukis ranked 13th nationally in team GPA

10/03/2017 | 2:38:00 | Softball

This is the 17th straight year Southern finished within the top-35

By: Tony McDaniel, SIUSalukis.com

Louisville, Ky. – The Salukis were ranked the 13^th-best academic team in the nation today for its 3.546 cumulative team GPA from the 2016-17 school year.

Southern's inclusion in the NFCA National Academic Rankings makes it the 17^th straight time that Southern has been ranked within the top-35 nationally and the seventh time this decade the team has finished in the top-15. Southern was only two one-hundredths of a point short of a top-ten national finish. The team has ranked within the top-15 nationally in 16 of the last 17 seasons.

Of the 16 players on Southern's roster last year, 10 of the players had cumulative GPAs for the 2016-17 school year at or above 3.5 to make them eligible for inclusion in the Easton/NFCA All-America Scholar Athlete Team. The 10 players were; Haley Andrus, Nicole Doyle, Kyleigh Decker, Shaye Harre, Sydney Jones, Katelyn Massa, Merri Anne Patterson, Bailee Pulley, Jessa Thomas and Maddy Vermejan.

Tuesday's announcement adds to a laundry list of academic awards to go along with the team's 2017 Missouri Valley Conference title. Recently graduated first baseman, Shaye Harre was named an Academic All-American in May and was also awarded the MVC's Elite 18 Award for her achievements on the field and in the classroom.

Merri Anne Patterson joined Harre as a member of the MVC's All-Academic First Team and Patterson, Harre and Jessa Thomas were all named as winners of the Missouri Valley Conference President's Council Academic Excellence Award for earning a 3.8 GPA for the 2016-17 school year. It is the Valley's highest academic honor.

In addition to those awards, all 16 Salukis from the 2016-17 season earned a spot on the MVC Honor Roll for achieving a 3.2 GPA for the 16-17 school year.

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