For the second consecutive year, midfielder Ashley Porter () has earned ESPN The Magazine Second Team Academic All-America honors, announced Tuesday by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA).
Porter, the 2006 GNAC Player of the Year, capped off her collegiate career with another outstanding season, finishing with one goal and 14 assists, the third consecutive season she earned that assist total. She tied the record for most assists in a career with 48, also the GNAC career assists record, and is now sixth on ’s all-time points list with 86 career points, which included 19 career goals.
In the classroom, Porter presently carries a 3.81 grade point average while majoring in marketing. She is the vice-president of SU’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC), a three-time Academic All-GNAC selection, and a three-time ESPN The Magazine First Team Academic All-District VIII selection. Last February her name appeared in a Washington State Senate resolution honoring National Girls and Women in Sports Day, and she appeared at the State House during the reading of that resolution.
Starting every match of her collegiate career, Porter is a three-time First Team All-GNAC and three-time All-Far West Region selection. In 2006 she became the first women’s soccer player to earn NSCAA First Team All-America honors since 1994. She also becomes the first student-athlete ever to earn two Academic All-America honors.
Porter and the rest of the senior class just capped off probably the best four-year run in the history of the Seattle University women’s soccer program, featuring a 61-15-8 record (.774), the 2006 GNAC championship, and three NCAA Tournament appearances, including a run to the Elite Eight in 2004.
The Academic All-America Teams program honors 816 male and female student-athletes annually who have succeeded at the highest level on the playing field and in the classroom. Individuals are selected through voting by CoSIDA, the College Sports Information Directors of America; a 2,000-member organization consisted of sports public relations professionals for colleges and universities in the and .
To be eligible, a student-athlete must be a varsity starter or key reserve, maintain a cumulative grade point average of 3.20 on a scale of 4.00, have reached sophomore athletic and academic standings at his/her current institution and be nominated by his/her sports information director. Since the program’s inception in 1952, CoSIDA has bestowed Academic All-America honors on more than 15,000 student-athletes in Divisions I, II, III and NAIA covering all NCAA championship sports.
is competing as a Division II institution for the final year, as the athletic department begins the process of moving to Division I. Next season the women’s soccer program will be in the reclassification year, playing a mixed schedule of Division I and non-Division I schools.