Wingate’s Brezovec, Lenoir-Rhyne’s Phillips Named Academic All-Americans

Waltham, Mass. -- Wingate University senior Rebecca Brezovec (Durham, N.C.) headlines the 2006 ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America® volleyball first team (College Division), as selected by CoSIDA (College Sports Information Directors of America).

Brezovec earns ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America® volleyball first team honors for the second year in a row. Lenoir-Rhyne's Kathryn Phillips also was named to the Academic All-America team, earning second team honors.

Brezovec was voted Academic All-America® of the Year in volleyball for the College Division. Only one student-athlete is selected Academic All-America® of the Year in each sport. She is the second Wingate student-athlete to earn Academic All-America® of the Year honors. Bulldog women's tennis standout Jenna Calomeris was the Academic All-America® of the Year for the At-Large program in 2002.

Earlier this month, Brezovec earned ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District III volleyball first team honors. District III (college division) includes all non-NCAA Division I schools (Division II, III and NAIA) in Florida, Georgia, Virginia and North and South Carolina. A three-time All-District honoree, Brezovec has a perfect 4.00 GPA in her Sociology major.

Since January 1, 2000, Wingate University has produced 22 Academic All-America® selections. Wingate entered the 2006-07 academic year ranked sixth among NCAA Division II Academic All-America® producing schools in the 2000s. Brezovec gives Wingate 31 Academic All-America® selections all-time, tops in the South Atlantic Conference.

Brezovec was the 2006 South Atlantic Conference Player of the Year. She is a two-time All-SAC middle blocker. Brezovec won the SAC Scholar-Athlete Award for volleyball for the second time in 2006. The SAC Scholar-Athlete Award is a prestigious honor given to only one student-athlete in each of the league's 14 sports.

Brezovec was named SAC Player of the Week twice this season (August 28 and October 9). In 103 games in 2006, Brezovec had 409 kills (3.97/game), 105 blocks (1.02/game) and a .328 hitting percentage. The Riverside High School graduate was second in the SAC in hitting percentage.

Top-seeded Wingate (25-8 overall) captured the 2006 Food Lion SAC volleyball tournament championship in November. Brezovec and her Wingate senior teammates qualified for the NCAA Division II play-offs three times during their four-year careers.

Student-athletes selected for Academic All-America® honors must be a starter or important reserve with legitimate athletic credentials. She must possess at least a 3.20 cumulative grade point average (on a 4.00 scale). She must have reached sophomore athletic and academic standing and must have completed at least one full academic year at her institution. Student-athletes are nominated by their sports information directors.

Brezovec is one of three repeat performers from 2005. Senior Virginia Aguilar from Hardin-Simmons (Texas) University joins Brezovec as a repeat selection from the 2005 first team. Senior Jessica Lucia from Concordia (Minn.) University earns first team laurels in 2006 after landing on the second team in 2005. Four of the six first team members have perfect 4.00 GPAs.

Since the program's inception in 1952, CoSIDA has bestowed Academic All-America honors on more than 14,000 student-athletes in Divisions I, II, III and NAIA covering all NCAA championship sports.

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Founded in 1896, Wingate University is a private four-year co-educational institution offering students active learning opportunities through personalized instruction, faith nurturing, career development, community service and study abroad.

Wingate offers more than 37 undergraduate majors in arts and sciences, business, education, fine arts, music and sport sciences. It also offers pre-professional programs and graduate degrees in business, education, physical education and sport administration. In the spring of 2007, Wingate University will award its first-ever doctor of pharmacy degrees. Bulldog student-athletes compete in 17 NCAA Division II sports.

Lenoir-Rhyne

Kathryn Phillips, a senior on the Lenoir-Rhyne College Volleyball Team, was named to the 2006 ESPN The Magazine CoSIDA Academic All-America College Division Second Team.

Phillips, a native of Lexington, North Carolina, and a graduate of West Davidson High School, has a 4.0 grade point average while majoring in psychology and was recently named the 2006 South Atlantic Conference Volleyball Co-Scholar Athlete Of The Year.

Phillips was also selected as the 2005-06 PEF/Bears Club Scholar Athlete Of The Year, given annually to Lenoir-Rhyne's male and female student athletes with the highest grade point averages.

On the court, Phillips is a two-time All-SAC second-team honoree (2005-06) and the school's all-time leader in blocked shots with 561.

This year, Phillips led the league in blocks with 152 and finished second on the team in kills (387) while leading the team to the South Atlantic Conference Regular Season Co-Championship.

2006 ESPN THE MAGAZINE ACADEMIC ALL-AMERICA®
VOLLEYBALL TEAMS (COLLEGE DIVISION)

FIRST TEAM
+Rebecca Brezovec, Wingate
+Virginia Aguilar, Hardin-Simmons
Sarah Shearman, Truman State
&Jessica Lucia, Concordia (Minn.)
Dee Ayres, North Alabama
Katie Westmoreland, Harding

SECOND TEAM
Kelly Downs, Elizabethtown
Nicole Hahn, Wilkes
Shanna Berger, Wisconsin-Eau Claire
Kathryn Phillips, Lenoir-Rhyne
Ashley Olson, Concordia (Minn.)
Susan Johnson, Rochester

THIRD TEAM
Darryl Manzer, Skidmore
Kelsey Kyro, Concordia (Minn.)
Jorl Simmons, Carthage
Traci Knuth, Armstrong Atlantic State
Meryn Grant, Colorado College
Stacey Vogel, Mesa State

Academic All-America® of the Year: Rebecca Brezovec, Wingate

+ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America® volleyball first team in 2005
&ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America® volleyball second team in 2005