Tuesday, August 2, 2016

ATLANTA – Western Oregon women’s basketball was not only the top academic team in GNAC, but also was among the top in the nation with a selection to the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association Academic Top 25 Honor Roll on Tuesday.

The Wolves finished the 2015-16 academic year with a team GPA of 3.566, which ranked 21st among NCAA Division II women’s basketball programs.

The Wolves recorded the best GPA in the GNAC in women’s basketball, leading Seattle Pacific by just two-hundredths of a grade point, and had the highest team GPA in any team sport in the conference. Across all five divisions in the WBCA, the Wolves ranked 46th in the nation.

Jordan Mottershaw had a 3.93 GPA as a communications major at WOU. The junior was a repeat selection of the GNAC Faculty Athletic Representative Scholar-Athlete Award. Freshman business major Ali Nelke topped the team’s GPA list with a 4.00 mark, while Natalie DeLonge and Launia Davis had 3.93 and 3.92 GPAs, respectively. The Wolves also had four selections to the GNAC Women’s Basketball All-Academic Team: Mottershaw, Michelle Bromagen, Sydney Azorr and Jasmine Miller.

As a school, Western Oregon ranked fifth academically in all women’s athletics in the GNAC Academic All-Sports Standings, paced by the basketball team.

The WBCA award is available to all college women’s basketball programs with a head coach that is a member of the WBCA. Each player that was on the team roster at the start of the second semester were included in the team GPA.