Womens basketball earns academic distinction

Last year, the Mountain Hawks team grade point average (GPA) of 3.42 ranked sixth in all of Division I, according to results announced by the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA). Lehigh has been ranked in the WBCA’s top ten in each of the last three seasons.
Last fall, all 15 players on the roster boasted a GPA of 3.0 or better, and in the spring semester, 12 players qualified for the Patriot League’s Academic Honor Roll with a GPA of 3.2 or higher. Eleven Lehigh players were named to the Dean’s List after recording a GPA of at least 3.5.
The strong academic success our young women have experienced in the classroom is a reflection of the type of student-athletes we recruit at Lehigh, said head coach Sue Troyan. They have shown their ability to prioritize what is important, and it is a pleasure to work with true student-athletes.
Lehigh’s success in 2002-03 carried over onto the court as well. Last year’s Mountain Hawks set a school record for Patriot League victories in a season with nine, and the team featured the league’s all-time leading rebounder (Anne Tierney, who is also Lehigh’s all-time scoring leader) and the Patriot League Rookie of the Year in point guard Dawn Gorynski.
Lehigh University, a founding member of the Patriot League, has been ranked in the top 20 in the NCAA’s overall student-athlete graduation rates report for nearly a decade, or essentially since the NCAA has tracked such data. Lehigh won the inaugural USA Today/NCAA Foundation Academic Achievement Award in 2001 for boasting the nation’s highest graduate rate at 96%. Lehigh is also one of just 20 athletics programs ranked by U.S. News & World Report’s America’s Best College Sports Programs.
For more information, contact Jeff Tourial, Lehigh Sports Media Relations.