Six Named NFCA All-America Scholar Athletes
October 07, 2011 | Softball
Oct. 7, 2011
STARKVILLE, Miss. – Six student-athletes from the 2011 East Carolina softball squad have been selected as National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) All-America Scholar Athletes, according to an announcement by the organization Friday. Jill Jelnick, Sissy Jimenez, Cicely Lopez, Taylor Megargel, Toni Paisley and Priscilla Velasquez all received the honor.
The award is given to any player who was submitted by a member coach and achieved a 3.50 grade-point average or higher during the 2010-11 academic year. The NFCA honored more than 4,000 student-athletes representing 707 academic institutions at the NCAA Division I, II and III levels, as well as the NAIA, junior college and high school ranks.
The individual efforts of the six Pirates helped ECU claim its third Conference USA Sport Academic Award in the last four years as the team posted a league-best 3.263 GPA. ECU softball and Rice's women's swimming and diving squads were the only two teams to earn their respective sport academic award while winning a 2011 C-USA championship.
Paisley led East Carolina on the field and in the classroom during the campaign. The senior received the league's Jim Castañeda Postgraduate Scholarship Award and Scholar Athlete-of-the-Year Award for softball. She also earned a repeat selection to the Conference USA Softball All-Academic Team and was a first-time choice to the Capital One Academic All-District 3 Second Team.
Paisley, Lopez and Jelnick were named to the East Carolina Chancellor's List for the spring semester after posting perfect 4.0 GPAs. Megargel was a Dean's List member (3.5 or higher GPA) while Jimenez and Velasquez were Honor Roll selections (3.0 or higher GPA).
