BETHLEHEM, Pa. – As dominant as Lehigh has been on the softball diamond over the last decade, the Mountain Hawks’ work in the classroom has been equally impressive. The National Fastpitch Coaches Association recently announced its top All-Academic teams, and Lehigh ranked 31st in all of Division I with a 3.287 team grade point average.
A total of 118 Division I programs were honored, led by St. Bonaventure, who topped Division I for the second straight year with a 3.622 team GPA. To be eligible, teams must have a GPA of 2.80 or better for the 2006-07 academic year. Southern Illinois, Eastern Michigan, Gardner-Webb and South Carolina rounded out the top five. In 2005-06, Lehigh ranked third in the nation with a 3.493 GPA, on the heels of a record-setting 43 win season on the field.
Lehigh is one of two Patriot League programs to be honored, with Bucknell being the other. The Mountain Hawks placed a league-best eleven student-athletes on the Patriot League Academic Honor Roll, led by outfielder Whitney Schenbeck ’07 and second baseman Megan Conrad ’08, who both earned perfect 4.0 GPA’s in the 2007 spring semester. All eleven of Lehigh’s Academic Honor Roll members posted grade point averages above 3.50.
In addition to their performance in the classroom, the Mountain Hawks captured their ninth straight Patriot League regular season championship on the field in 2007. Lehigh returns 12 players from last year’s team including the Patriot League Player of the Year, Kate Marvel, and the league’s Pitcher of the Year, Lisa Sweeney.