September 30—The Northwestern College softball team tallied a 3.694 team grade point average (GPA) during the 2010-11 academic year to lead all colleges in both the NCAA (all divisions) and NAIA in the 2011 National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) Top 10 All-Academic team rankings. This marks the first time in program history that the Eagles have led either the NCAA Division III or all-college rankings.

The NFCA Academic Awards program honors both collegiate and high school teams for their submitted GPAs for the 2010-11 academic year. As a second component of the program, all submitted student-athletes who achieved a 3.50 GPA during the last academic year are named as a NFCA All-America Scholar Athlete. The individual honorees will be announced on October 5.

Northwestern's 3.694 team GPA bested NCAA Division I leader Tennessee Tech (3.619), Division II leader Central Missouri (3.533) and the NAIA leader in Central Methodist (3.627). The Eagles received the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC) Team Academic Award and the National Christian College Athletic Association's (NCCAA) Team Academic Award, both of which were announced in June.

“This award is an honor and is definitely deserving of our athletes as they put in the hard work in the classroom. We foster a program in which our athletes know they are at Northwestern as students first and athletes second,” said Eagles Head Coach Alicia du'Monceaux. “We back that up in the way we run our program and with the support we show our players in their academic efforts. I am proud of their hard work and accomplishments both in the classroom and on the field.”

Northwestern is already preparing for its 2012 campaign, which officially begins in March, with fall workouts. du'Monceaux's teams have recorded 20 or more wins in each of her three seasons as the team's head coach.