Wednesday, December 5, 2018

AUSTIN, Texas – A banner award season continued for the GNAC on Wednesday as three women's soccer players were selected to the 2018 Google Cloud CoSIDA Division II Academic All-America team.

Seattle Pacific defender Julia DeVere and Montana State Billings defender Amanda Hemmen received first-team honors while Falcons forward Sophia Chilczuk was selected to the third team. DeVere and Chilczuk guided their team to the program's 15th NCAA Championships appearance in the last 16 years, while Hemmen helped anchor a solid Yellowjacket defense.

Hemmen and Chilczuk led the GNAC selections with perfect 4.00 GPAs. A biology major, Hemmen started each of her team's 17 matches as a junior. She tallied one goal and one assist from her position as a center back but was always involved on the defensive end of the pitch. Her on-field excellence was recognized with an All-GNAC Honorable Mention nod for the second time in her career. 

DeVere joined Hemmen as a first-team selection to the Academic All-America Team. Boasting a 3.91 GPA as a psychology major, DeVere spearheaded the Falcons defensive dominance throughout much of her final season in Seattle. The team finished third in the conference in goals allowed (15), goals against average (0.81) and shutouts (8). DeVere was named the GNAC Defensive Player of the Year after the outstanding campaign.

Chilczuk, a pre-medicine/physiology major, led SPU in both points and goals this season. The forward was a First Team All-GNAC selection after tallying 19 points on eight goals. She helped lead her team to a 12-6-2 record in 2018, taking Seattle Pacific to both the GNAC and NCAA Championships.

To be eligible for the Google Cloud CoSIDA Academic All-America Team, student-athletes must have at least a 3.30 grade-point average, have already completed one season of competition and be a starter or significant reserve. The 33 Academic All-Americans were selected based on voting from the pool of those that received first-team regional academic honors.