DELAWARE, Ohio - Ana Gutierrez (Las Cruces, N.M.), one of the captains of the 2006 Seattle University women's soccer team that won the GNAC title and advanced to the NCAA Division II Tournament, has been voted to the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America First Team, announced Tuesday by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA).
Junior midfielder Ashley Porter (Redmond, Wash.), the GNAC Player of the Year, also earned recognition by the sports information directors organization with her inclusion on the Academic All-America Second Team. Gutierrez and Porter were eligible for Academic All-America honors by being voted First Team Academic All-District earlier this month.
Gutierrez was the anchor of the Seattle defense that is presently ranked ninth in Division II for lowest goals against average, allowing 0.48 goals per 90 minutes. Thanks in part to Gutierrez, Seattle set a new school record with a 12-match unbeaten streak and also notched 12 team shutouts during the 2006 campaign.
Gutierrez became only the third player in conference history to be named First Team All-GNAC four consecutive seasons. Thanks to a 3.9 grade point average while double majoring in sociology and Spanish, she has been a three-time GNAC Academic Team honoree. Gutierrez started every Seattle match over her four-year career, finishing with seven goals and three assists for 17 total points.
Porter tied her own GNAC record for most assists in a season with 14 helpers this season and is fourth on Seattle's all-time assists list with 34 career assists. She also scored seven goals, tied for second on the team. Porter was a unanimous selection to the 2006 All-GNAC First Team and also was voted First Team Daktronics All-Region. She is presently majoring in marketing with a 3.81 grade point average.
Entering the 2006-07 academic year, Seattle had four student-athletes all-time honored as CoSIDA Academic All-Americans, with Tafara Pulse of the women's soccer team being the last so honored with a second team selection in 2003. Gutierrez and Porter join men's soccer players Adam Jensen and Hans Esterhuizen as Seattle student-athletes already honored this year, with Melissa Mulick in contention for a spot on one of the Volleyball Academic All-America Teams, to be announced on Nov. 28.
Founded by CoSIDA in 1952, the Academic All-America Teams program recognizes and awards our nation's premier college scholar-athletes for their ability to achieve excellence on the playing field and in the classroom. CoSIDA selects 816 student-athletes to six men's teams (soccer, football, basketball, baseball, at-large and track & field/cross country) and six women's teams (soccer, volleyball, basketball, softball, at-large and track & field/cross country) in Division I, II and III and NAIA in all NCAA championship sports.