Tuesday, July 14, 2015
by Seattle Pacific Athletics Media Relations

ATLANTA – For the second year in a row, the Seattle Pacific Falcons are among the smartest women's basketball teams in NCAA Division II.
 
The Falcons were announced on Tuesday as having earned a spot on the Women's Basketball Coaches Association Academic Top 25 Team Honor Roll.
 
SPU, with its team cumulative grade-point average of 3.55, is tied with Gannon University of Pennsylvania for No. 20 on the prestigious academic list. Occupying the No. 1 place on the list is Ohio Dominican University at 3.842.
 
The Falcons were the only team from the Great Northwest Athletic Conference in the top 25, and one of just two from the West Region. The other West team is UC San Diego, at No. 25 with a 3.51 cumulative GPA.

"Especially during winter quarter, we were on the road with two trips to Alaska and one to Billings the last three weeks (of the season). So for our kids to make up labs and really just stay steady during a very stressful time, I'm very proud of them," head coach Julie Heisey said. "As much as our seniors did a lot of great things, we have four freshmen and nine underclassmen out of 15 on our team, so it was a team effort on the whole GPA thing. We have hard majors, and our kids are graduating on time."
 
The award is the latest academic one for the Falcons.
 
A total of six players made the GNAC All-Academic team, and now-graduated Suzanna Ohlsen collected multiple awards for her classwork, including Academic All-America of the Year for Division II women's hoops as presented by the Collegiate Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA). Ohlsen also was on CoSIDA's Academic All-District team and won an NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship.
 
Seattle Pacific was one of seven teams on the top-25 honor roll that qualified for last season's NCAA Tournament. The Falcons went 22-7 overall and advanced to the West Region semifinals.