Sports News: Fall 2003

Wednesday, October 8, 2003

MORAVIAN WOMEN’S BASKETBALL TEAM EARNS A SPOT ON THE 2003 WBCA ACADEMIC TOP 25 TEAM HONOR ROLL

ATLANTA, GA --- The Moravian College women’s basketball team is among the 25 NCAA Division III schools listed in the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association 2002-03 Academic Top 25 Team Honor Roll for NCAA Division III.

The awards, handed out on the Division I, II and III levels as well as in NAIA and Junior College/Community College, recognize the nation’s highest team grade point averages (GPA) for the 2002-03 season based upon nominations submitted by the WBCA-member coaches.

The Greyhounds had a team GPA of 3.402 last year to rank 14th among the 25 Division III schools listed. The only other Middle Atlantic Corporation school in the top 25 was Messiah College, which was sixth, after holding the top spot the two previous years. Moravian, under the direction of head coach Mary Beth Spirk for the 17th season, will return nine players from last year’s 20-8 squad that played Messiah for the Commonwealth Conference Championship and competed in the 2003 Eastern College Athletics Conference South Championships.

“It is incredible to see the GPAs each Top 25 team produces year in and year out.” Said Beth Bass, the Chief Executive Officer of the WBCA. “These teams set a precedent among student-athletes and deserve to be recognized for their accomplishment. Congratulations to the 110 teams we honor this year!”

Indiana State University (Division I) and the University of Nebraska-Kearney (Division II) make their first, first-place finishes in the WBCA Academic Top 25 Team Honor Roll, while Whitworth College (Division III), Concordia (NE) University (NAIA) and Salt Lake Community College have all earned top honors in previous years. Concordia makes and unprecedented fourth consecutive No. 1 finish.

GPAs are calculated by dividing the total number of quality points earned by each student-athlete on an institution’s squad list in the given academic terms by the total number of hours earned by the team. The GPAs are rounded to the nearest thousandth of a point.

For a complete list of the Division III schools in the WBCA 2003 Academic Top 25 Team Honor Roll from Division III, visit the following website http://www.wbca.org/releases/2003academic25DIII.asp.