May 20, 2010
Notre Dame, Ind. – Three Notre Dame student-athletes have been selected to the 2010 ESPN The Magazine/CoSIDA Academic all-District Five At-Large team in voting done by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) for the 2009-10 school year with two selected to the men’s team and one the women’s squad.
Leading the Irish contingent was women’s tennis standout Cosmina Ciobanu (Sr., Brea, Calif.) who was selected first team all-District and will move on to the national ballot for Academic All-America honors that will be announced in June.
Joining Ciobanu as second team selections on the men’s team were hockey senior Kevin Deeth (Gig Harbor, Wash.) and senior swimmer John Lytle (Sr., Clearfield, Pa.). The at-large program includes women’s bowling, women’s crew, men’s and women’s fencing, women’s field hockey, men’s and women’s golf, men’s and women’s gymnastics, men’s and women’s ice hockey, men’s and women’s lacrosse, men’s and women’s rifle, men’s and women’s skiing, men’s and women’s swimming, men’s and women’s tennis, men’s volleyball, men’s and women’s water polo and men’s wrestling.
Nominations for the at-large teams are limited to three student-athletes per school per gender. Thus, each institution may nominate a total of three men’s at-large candidates and three women’s at-large candidates. There is no limit to the number of candidates that may be nominated for a particular sport.
Voting is done by the College Sports Information Directors of America with 10 players chosen to the first and second teams in each district with the 10 first team selections moving to the national ballot.
Ciobanu has had a stellar career at Notre Dame both on and off the tennis court. She earned all-BIG EAST honors in 2009 and 2010 and was named to the conference all-tournament team for both singles and doubles in 2008, helping the Irish win BIG EAST Conference Championships the past three seasons. A four-time NCAA team participant, Ciobanu led the Irish to an NCAA quarterfinal appearance in 2007 and an NCAA semifinal performance in 2009, the highest finish in program history.
A two-time recipient of the Notre Dame Club of St. Joseph Valley Rockne Student-Athlete award, Ciobanu holds an overall singles record of 112-31 and a 112-30 mark in doubles action. A mainstay in the Irish lineup for the past four seasons, Ciobanu has career-high Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) rankings of 31st (singles) and 39th (doubles) and set Notre Dame’s single-season dual-match winning percentage record with a 26-1 singles mark in 2007, a feat that earned her the Monogram Club MVP Award. Ciobanu earned co-MVP honors again this season after compiling a 24-3 singles mark and a 19-5 record in doubles action.
Senior center Kevin Deeth was a second team selection to ESPN The Magazine/CoSIDA’s district five all-academic at-large team for the 2009-10 season.
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An eight-time selection to the Dean’s List at Notre Dame, Ciobanu graduated on May 16 with a double major in science pre-professional studies and anthropology with a 3.87 grade-point average. She is a member of Notre Dame’s Academic Honors Program and has been named an ITA Scholar Athlete and BIG EAST Academic All-Star for the past three years. Thanks to her outstanding performance both on the court and in the classroom, Ciobanu was named the BIG EAST Women’s Tennis Scholar-Athlete of the Year from Notre Dame and earned the Monoram Club Postgraduate Scholarship.
Ciobanu also is very active in the community, volunteering with Fighting Irish Fight For Life, the Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Christmas Party and Michiana Bike for Hospice, as well as interning with Dr. Daniel Danahey at the Michiana Eye Center and Facial Plastic Surgery. She will enroll in medical school this fall.
Senior swimmer John Lytle was selected to ESPN The Magazine/CoSIDA’s second team district five all-academic at-large team.
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Deeth is a four-time monogram winner for the Notre Dame hockey team who closed his Notre Dame career in 2009-10 tied for fifth in team scoring with 19 points on three goals and 16 assists with the 16 helpers ranking second on the team. For his career, Deeth finished 35th on the all-time scoring list with 114 career points while being the school’s all-time leader in games played with 164. An alternate captain this past year, Deeth was the winner of the team’s Rockne Scholar-Athlete Award and was selected to the Central Collegiate Hockey Association’s (CCHA) Scholar-Athlete team. As a freshman, the center iceman was named to the CCHAs all-rookie team and in 2008 he was selected to the all-tournament team at the NCAA Frozen Four. During his career, the Irish won two CCHA regular-season and postseason titles (2007 and 2009) and advanced to the NCAA Tournament three times (2007, 2008 and 2009). As a senior, Deeth oversaw the team’s community service efforts and was a nominee for college hockey’s Humanitarian Award and the CCHA’s Mike and Marian Ilitch Humanitarian Award. He was the winner of Notre Dame’s Christopher Zorich Award for community service and also received the Byron V. Kanaley Award as a top senior athlete who is exemplary as a student and a leader. Deeth had a 3.59 grade-point average in Marketing and graduated from the Mendoza College of Business on May 16.
Lytle joins Deeth as a second team selection after being a 22-time all-BIG EAST performer in swimming during his four years at Notre Dame. He is the owner of three individual school records (50 free, 100 free, 200 free) and four relay records (400 medley, 200 free, 400 free and 800 free). During his career, he helped led the Irish to a pair of BIG EAST team titles (2008, 2009) and second-place finishes in 2007 and 2010. He closed out his career this season by being named the 2009-10 BIG EAST Men’s Swimming Scholar-Athlete of the Year and was the men’s swimming team’s recipient of the Notre Dame Club of St. Joseph Valley Rockne Scholar-Athlete Award. A two-time College Swimming Coaches Association All-Academic Team honorable mention selection, Lytle is a four-time Dean’s List selection at Notre Dame and graduated on May 16 with a 3.63 grade-point average in Finance from the Mendoza College of Business. He was a member of Notre Dame’s Rosenthal Leadership Academy and Academic Honors for Student-Athletes and became the eighth member of the men’s swimming and diving program to win Notre Dame’s prestigious Byron V. Kanaley Award.