Senior Ashley Jones - who carries a 3.98 cumulative GPA - has joined Vanessa Pruzinsky and Erika Bohn as the Irish women's soccer players who have been first team Academic All-Americns in multiple years.

Ashley Jones Repeats As First Team Academic All-American; Brittany Bock Named To Third Team

Nov. 20, 2007

Notre Dame women’s soccer senior midfielder Ashley Jones (Westlake Village, Calif.) has been named to the 11-player ESPN The Magazine first team Academic All-America list for the second straight year while junior forward Brittany Bock (Naperville, Ill.) has been named to the third team, as selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA). Notre Dame joined North Carolina (two second-teamers) and Penn State (second- and third-teamer) as the only women’s soccer teams with multiple players on the 2007 Academic All-America team.

Jones – who carries a 3.98 cumulative grade-point average as an accounting major – has appeared in all 102 games of her Notre Dame career while helping the Irish go 89-9-4 in that four-year span. She follows former defender Vanessa Pruzinsky (2000, ’01, ’03) and goalkeeper Erika Bohn (’04, ’05) as the third Notre Dame women’s soccer player ever to be named a first team Academic All-American in multiple seasons. Jones is tied for fifth on the 2007 team with 11 points (3 goals, 5 assists) and has helped spark the team on its current 15-game unbeaten streak (14-0-1; 17-4-2 overall).

1436137.jpeg

Brittany Bock has proved to be effective using her head – both on the field and in the classroom – during her career as a Notre Dame student-athlete.

spacer.gif

spacer.gif

Bock recently was named the BIG EAST Conference co-player of the year for the 2007 season, after leading the conference with 10 goals during BIG EAST play. The converted midfielder has totaled 13 of her 14 goals this season over the course of her past 13 games played. Bock owns a 3.25 cumulative GPA as a business marketing major and has been a member of various United States youth national teams in recent years.

The Notre Dame women’s soccer program’s unmatched tradition of Academic All-America excellence now includes 20 selections during the past 13 seasons (the most honors from any D-I women’s soccer team in that span). Seven Notre Dame women’s soccer players now have combined for 11 first-team Academic All-America honors, with the Irish program producing at least one first-teamer in eight of the past 12 years. At least one Notre Dame women’s soccer player has been named Academic All-America in 11 of the past 13 seasons (all but ’99 and ’02).

Notre Dame earlier had a total of four players named to the CoSIDA Academic All-District V team, as Jones and Bock were named to the first team whole senior F/M Susan Pinnick (South Bend, Ind.) and sophomore M/D Amanda Clark (Naperville, Ill.) were second-team selections. Notre Dame’s total of four players earning first- or second-team Academic All-District honors was tied with two other teams for second-most in the most in the country, spanning the eight CoSIDA districts and more than 300 Division I women’s soccer programs. Jones and Bock make Notre Dame one of 17 teams nationwide with multiple players on the respective first team Academic All-District lists.

Pinnick carries a 3.86 cumulative GPA, as an accounting major, and ranks third on the 2007 team in scoring with 13 points (5G-3A), contributing all but one of those points during the current unbeaten streak .Clark (a 3.44 student, as a business major) has settled in as Notre Dame’s starting defensive midfielder and has appeared in all 50 games during the past two years (including starts in all 23 games this season).

Jones and Bock helped the Notre Dame women’s soccer squad compile a 3.30 team GPA during the 2007 spring semester, representing one of the top GPAs posted by any of Notre Dame’s 26 varsity teams during the 2006-07 academic year.

This marks the eighth season – including four of the past five (all but ’06) – that multiple Notre Dame women’s soccer players have been named CoSIDA Academic All-Americans (also ’95, ’96, 2000 and ’01).

The 16 teams remaining in the 2007 NCAA Women’s Soccer Championship field include six – Notre Dame, Stanford, West Virginia, North Carolina, Penn State and Texas – that include players who were among the 33 total Academic All-America honorees. Jones joins Stanford defender Rachel Buehler and West Virginia forward Ashley Banks as the only first team Academic All-Americans whose teams still are alive in the NCAAs.

The BIG EAST Conference had the most players (5) among the 33 Academic All-Americans, with those honorees including Jones, Banks, Bock, Louisville goalkeeper Joanna Haig (1st team) and Marquette goalkeeper Laura Boyer (3rd team). The Academic All-Americans include four other players who have faced the Irish this season: Buehler, Penn State forward Aubrey Aden-Buie and midfielder Zoe Bouchelle, and Oklahoma State defender Niccole Grimaldi (plus two from upcoming opponent UNC, in `keeper Anna Rodenbough and midfielder Yael Averbuch).

Updates bio. capsules and ND women’s soccer Academic All-America historical notes follow below:

Ashley Jones (Sr.; M/D; Westlake Village, Calif.; 3.98 cumulative GPA/accounting) – Versatile player during her Irish career, with an initial role as a top midfield reserve on the 2004 NCAA championship team before being a starting right back for most of the ’05 and ’06 seasons, before returning to primarily a midfield role this season … her 3.98 cumulative GPA as an accounting major at Notre Dame includes 26 A grades and two A-minuses, among her 28 total courses … has provided a midfield spark during team’s current 15-game win streak and ranks fifth on the team with 11 points (3 goals, 5 assists) in 23 games played (12 starts) … has yet to miss a game in her Notre Dame career (102; tied for 9th in NCAA D-I history and one shy of Jen Buczkowski’s ND record) while helping the Irish compile an 89-9-4 record during that four-year span (2004-07) … the ND and North Carolina senior classes are tied for the most career wins in the nation (among 2007 senior classes), with the Irish and Tar Heels set to meet this weekend in the NCAA round-of-16 (Sat., Nov. 24; noon) … was part of the U.S. Under-20 National Team player pool in 2006 … previously named a CoSIDA first team Academic All-American in 2006 (also has been named first team Academic All-District V each of the past three years) … has proven to be a clutch scorer throughout her career … nearly half of her 29 career points with the Irish (7G-15A) have come during postseason play (12; 3G-6A), including a header goal that saw her elevate over the Rutgers goalkeeper to send home a corner kick for the first goal in that 2-0 BIG EAST quarterfinal win … also assisted on Brittany Bock’s early gamewinning goal versus Colorado in the 2006 NCAA third round, in addition to scoring the first goal versus Connecticut in the 2004 BIG EAST final and registering a pair of assists in the 2006 title game versus Rutgers (4-2) … her assist early in that ’06 BIG EAST final produced the quickest goal (at 0:57, by Kerri Hanks) in Notre Dame’s 91 all-time postseason games … her midseason five-game point streak included two assists in the 3-0 win at St. John’s and a goal in the 5-0 win over Villanova (a team that had allowed only 4G in its first 14 games this season) .. .as a junior, she assisted on Jill Krivacek’s game-tying goal in the 2006 early-season showdown with Santa Clara (a 3-1 ND win; both teams were ranked #1 in different polls) and she later scored to cap a 2-0 win at Louisville that season .. .an invited member of Notre Dame’s Academic Honors Program, which pairs high-achieving student-athletes with faculty mentors.

Brittany Bock (Jr.; M/F; Naperville, Ill.; 3.25 cumulative GPA/marketing) – Named BIG EAST co-offensive player of the year, after leading the league with 10 goals scored during BIG EAST regular-season play … has scored 13 of her 14 goals during the team’s current 15-game unbeaten streak (13 GP in that span) … was named national player of the week in back-to-back weeks earlier this season, after totaling 4G-1A in road wins at Syracuse and St. John’s (Oct. 5/7) and then duplicating that 4G-1A versus Villanova and Georgetown on Oct. 12 and 14 … member of U.S. Under-21 National Team who trained with the full National Team in early 2007 … converted midfielder who is one of nation’s most versatile and all-around talented offensive players … her shift to forward has spearheaded Notre Dame’s dominance over the past two months (42-6 scoring edge in unbeaten streak), as she snapped out of a seven-game goal drought by registering a career-best five-game goal streak … on the verge of reaching the 20G-20A milestone for her career (38G-19A, including 3A in ’07) while her 13 career game-winning goals (in 67 total games/57 starts) include a team-best seven this season … became the sixth Notre Dame player ever to score the first three goals in a game (at Syracuse) and has totaled nearly half of her career goals (18 of 38) on headers, in addition to four rare header assists during her career … one of her biggest goals of the season was a far-post header via a free-kick service from Kerri Hanks, giving the Irish a 2-1 overtime win over BIG EAST rival Connecticut … was an NSCAA second team all-region selection in 2006 and was named second team all-BIG EAST in each of her first two seasons with the Irish (1st team in ’07) … capped off her selection to the 2006 NCAA all-tournament team with a header goal in the national championship game versus North Carolina, after earlier scoring in the third round versus Colorado (3-0) and then adding assists against Penn State (4-0 quarterfinal) and Florida State (2-1 semifinal) … was among a select group of student-athletes who were accepted as early enrollees at Notre Dame during the summer of 2005.

NOTRE DAME WOMEN’S SOCCER ACADEMIC ALL-AMERICA HISTORY – ND women’s soccer players now have combined for 20 All-America honors during the past 13 seasons (most by any D-I women’s soccer program during that span) … seven ND women’s soccer players have combined for 10 first team Academic All-America honors, with the Irish program producing at least one first-teamer in eight of the past 12 years … at least one ND women’s soccer player has been named Academic All-America in 11 of the past 13 seasons (all but ’99 and ’02) … the program easily could have laid claim to honorees in the other two years, as Jenny Streiffer somehow was passed over in her 1999 All-America season (despite previously being an Academic All-American in ’97 and ’98) while an injury to Vanessa Pruzinsky prevented her from earning her third straight Academic All-America honor in ’02 (which instead came in ’03) … ND’s honorees include three who have been multiple-year first teamers: standout defender Pruzinsky (2000, ’01 and ’03), goalkeeper Erika Bohn (’04, ’05) and M/D Ashley Jones (’06, ’07) … the program’s other first team Academic All-Americans have included goalkeeper Jen Renola (’96), forward Amy VanLaecke (’96), M/F Streiffer (’97) and midfielder Annie Schefter (’05) … CoSIDA did not begin naming an exclusive women’s soccer Academic All-America team until 2001 … prior to ’01, women’s soccer was part of the fall and winter “at-large” program, a highly selective process that honored soccer players as part of a larger sampling that included multiple sports … Renola was recognized as the 1996 CoSIDA Academic All-American of the Year for fall and winter “at-large” sports while Pruzinsky was the Academic All-American of the Year for women’s soccer in 2003, when she returned for a fifth year of eligibility as a graduate student after graduating in May of 2003 with a 4.0 cumulative GPA (the first female student at Notre Dame ever to do so as a chemical engineering major) … more than half (11 of 20) of the ND women’s soccer Academic All-Americans have been first-team honorees … those receiving second-team honors have included Renola and VanLaecke in 1995, Streiffer in ’98, defender Monica Gonzalez in 2001, Bohn in ’03, forward Mary Boland in ’03, and Schefter in ’05 … forward Meotis Erikson was named a third team Academic All-American in 2000 (as was M/F Brittany Bock in ’07) … Pruzinsky, Bohn and Boland in 2003 became the first group of three D-I women’s soccer teammates ever named Academic All-American for the same season.