Eleven Named To ZAG / NFHCA National Academic Squad

PRESS RELEASE: ZAG / NFHCA Division III National Academic Squad (PDF)

CHANDLER, Ariz. – Eleven members of the Wells College field hockey team were selected to the 2015 ZAG Sports / National Field Hockey Coaches Association (NFHCA) Division III National Academic Squad, the organization revealed Tuesday. The announcement comes one day after the NFHCA publicized that, as a team, the Express posted the nation's fifth-best grade-point average. 

The National Academic Squad is comprised of student-athletes who have achieved a cumulative grade-point average of 3.30 or higher through the first semester of the 2015-16 academic year. Dating back to 1996, a total of 41 student-athletes from Wells have earned placement to the list – this year's honorees were the first submissions by Wells to the NFHCA since 2006. 

Senior captain Shelby Bourn (Sidney, N.Y.), junior Lexi Cohen (Newtown, Pa.), senior Chandler Fitzgerald (Weedsport, N.Y.), junior Courtney Pitcher (Verona, N.Y.), freshman Katherine Pryor (Oneida, N.Y.), senior Lexie Roberson (Winston-Salem, N.C.), sophomore Nicole Sales (Woodbury, Conn.), sophomore Kaitlyn Schwend (San Marcos, Calif.), junior Shianne Stokes (Mays Landing, N.J.), sophomore Kate Wells (Gardner, Mass.) and senior Kendrick Wilson (Collins, N.Y.) were all named to the prestigious list. 

The 11 selections to the list are the most by a Wells College field hockey team since the 2001 season where seven student-athletes were feted. 

For the first time in the team's 40-year history as a varsity sport, Wells captured its first-ever conference championship this past October, winning the North Eastern Athletic Conference league title after defeating Wilson College by a 1-0 score. The Express also had three players earn NEAC All-Conference honors and Bourn was named the conference's Defensive Player of the Year. 

Wells has joined the North Atlantic Conference in advance of the 2016 season - the Express now has the opportunity to earn an automatic qualifying bid to the NCAA Division III field hockey tournament for the first time in team history.