2011 Softball Team Named to NFCA All-Academic List

The 2011 Suffolk University Softball team was named to National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) Top-10 All-Academic team list for the past academic year. During the 2010-11 academic calendar, Suffolk ranked fifth among all NCAA Division-III softball programs in the nation posting a 3.558 team grade-point average.

Four players off of Head Coach Keri Lemasters' 2011 roster achieved Dean's High Honors List for the spring semester achieving a grade-point average of 3.7 or above, while two of those four earned a perfect 4.0 GPA (senior Monica Cioffi and sophomore Mandi Thornton). Five other softball players earned Dean's Honors for the spring semester posting a GPA of at least 3.30. During the Fall Semester of 2010 each member of the Suffolk Softball team enrolled at the Boston campus achieved a grade-point average of at least 3.0, while seven earned Dean's High Honors.

Coach Lemasters was proud of her team's accomplishments. "I am very proud of what our team was able to accomplish last year in the classroom. It is a major commitment being a student-athlete at the collegiate level, especially in an urban environment at Suffolk University. I appreciate the diligence our student-athletes demonstrated towards balancing their dual responsibilities as well as the commitment of their professors and support staff here at the institution in allowing them to achieve such high academic success."

Of the 13 players on the 2011 roster, 12 currently maintain a cumulative gradepoint average of 3.00 or above.

Suffolk's College of Arts & Sciences is represented by nine players, while three players are studying in the Sawyer School of Management and one is an undecided major.

The Suffolk Softball team was also recognized by the Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) for their academic achievements last season as they had six members make the league's Academic All-Conference team. To be eligible a student-athlete must have completed one full academic year and maintain a cumulative grade-point average of 3.25 of above.

The National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) is the professional growth organization for fastpitch softball coaches from all competitive levels of play.  Based out of Starkville, Mississippi, the NFCA is made up of more than 4,100 members that consist of college coaches, joined by high school and travel ball/club coaches, umpires, as well as other fans of fastpitch softball.