GREENSBORO, N.C. - UNC Greensboro seniors Kelly Attayek and Lauren Lopez have earned spots on the CoSIDA ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District III Second Team, CoSIDA announced Thursday.
The Spartans are 12-6 overall and 8-2 in the Southern Conference this season, and play Elon tonight with the league's regular-season title on the line. UNCG enters the game first in the standings, while the Phoenix is second.
During their careers, Attayek and Lopez have amassed a 57-23-6 overall mark and an astounding 37-2-2 Southern Conference record over the last four seasons. The two are part of a senior class that has won three straight Southern Conference regular-season championships, won the 2006 SoCon tournament, and has made two trips to the NCAA tournament.
Attayek earns academic all-district laurels for the second straight season after taking a spot on the third team in 2008. A two-time Academic All-Southern Conference selection, Attayek was named the SoCon Student-Athlete of the Week once during her sophomore year, a season that also saw her take player of the week and player of the month honors in addition to first-team all-conference distinction. The Raleigh, N.C., native was a second-team All-SoCon selection as a freshman in 2006 and led the league in assists with 11 as a junior last season. The finance major sports a 3.75 grade point average and has spent six semesters on the Athletic Director's Honor Roll, five on the Dean's List and four on the Chancellor's List during her career.
The award is the latest in a long line of them for Lopez, as the Concord, N.C., native is one of 10 national finalists for the Lowe's Senior CLASS Award this year. Lopez is a two-time Academic All-Southern Conference selection and was a third-team NSCAA/adidas Scholar All-South Region pick in 2008. She was also inducted into UNCG's prestigious Golden Chain Honor Society last year and has earned spots on the Athletic Director's Honor Roll, Dean's List and Chancellor's List each semester she has been eligible to do so in her career. Lopez earned UNCG's Aaron Bobb Scholarship, given annually to the student-athlete with the highest grade point average. An art major with a 3.94 GPA, Lopez has also excelled on the field, as she is a two-time All-Southern Conference selection and was a third-team all-region pick by Soccer Buzz last year. She also earned a spot on the 2008 SoCon All-Tournament Team after helping the Spartans to three shutouts in the tournament and the title game.
The selections of Attayek and Lopez mark the fourth straight season that UNCG has had at least one student-athlete on one of the academic all-district teams. It is the first time the Spartans have had multiple selections in the same season since Jill Barrett, Megan Bynum and Kathryn Clewley were all honored in 2001.
After Thursday night's match against Elon, the Spartans will take part in the Southern Conference tournament, slated for Nov. 6 and 8. The tournament will be at the highest seed, which would be UNCG if the Spartans beat or tie Elon on Thursday. Should Elon win the contest, the Phoenix would host the tournament.
- UNCG -