Ashley Jones - the seventh different Notre Dame women's soccer player ever named a first team Academic All-American - carries a 3.96 cumulative GPA, as an accounting major.

Soccer Defender Ashley Jones Named First Team Academic All-American, With 3.96 Cumulative GPA

Nov. 22, 2006

Notre Dame women’s soccer junior defender Ashley Jones has been named an ESPN The Magazine first team Academic All-American, as selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America. Jones – one of just three non-seniors named to the prestigious 11-player first team – carries a 3.96 cumulative grade-point average as an accounting major, after receiving 17 A grades and two A-minuses during her first two years at Notre Dame. Jones has been a key part of Notre Dame’s defense as the starting right back, helping the unbeaten and top-ranked Irish allow just eight goals and 46 shots on goal (1.9 per game) over the course of 24 games this season. She has appeared in all 76 games of her Notre Dame career, as a leading member of the winningest class in the program’s history (.934; 70-4-2).

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Ashley Jones has developed into a top outside back with the Irish, after converting from the midfield during her sophomore season.

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(Note: see the following link for a recent feature story on Jones in her hometown paper, including quotes from Jones and Notre Dame head coach Randy Waldrum):

Notre Dame student-athletes now have combined for official Academic All-America honors 177 times since 1952, with the Irish total of Academic All-Americans ranking second in the nation. The Notre Dame women’s soccer program’s unmatched tradition of Academic All-America excellence now includes 18 selections during the past 12 seasons (North Carolina has the second-most selections since ’95, with 12). Seven Notre Dame women’s soccer players now have combined for nine 10 team Academic All-America honors, with the Irish program producing at least one first-teamer in seven of the past 11 years. At least one Notre Dame women’s soccer player has been named Academic All-America in 10 of the past 12 seasons (all but ’99 and ’02).and the program easily could have laid claim to honorees in the other two years (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).

Seven Notre Dame women’s soccer players now have combined to be named first team Academic All-America a total of 10 times, led by a pair of multiple-year first teamers in standout defender Pruzinsky (2000, ’01 and ’03) and goalkeeper Erika Bohn (’04. ’05). The program’s other first team Academic All-Americans have included goalkeeper Jen Renola (’96), forward Amy VanLaecke (’96) and midfielder/forward Jenny Streiffer (’97) and midfielder Annie Schefter (’05).

In addition to Jones, four other Notre Dame women’s soccer players – who helped compile a 3.42 team GPA during the 2006 spring semester – were among the initial nominees for CoSIDA academic honors, with senior midfielder Jen Buczkowski (3.39 cumulative GPA, as a marketing major) and senior defender Christie Shaner (3.49, as a design major) each receiving second team Academic All-District V honors (Jones was named to the first team). Notre Dame’s other nominees included senior defender Kim Lorenzen (3.45; finance) and sophomore forward Brittany Bock (3.45; business).

Jones, Buczkowski, Shaner and Lorenzen also have been nominated for Scholar All-America honors from the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA), with those honorees to be announced after the season.

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).

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Ashley Jones (far right) is congratulated by her teammates after scoring the second goal in the 2-0 win over Louisville earlier this season.

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More than half (10 of 18) of the Notre Dame women’s soccer Academic All-Americans now 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. Pruzinsky, Bohn and Boland in 2003 became the first three D-I women’s soccer teammates ever named Academic All-American for the same season.

Jones – who also was a first team Academic All-District V selection in 2005 – should enter her senior season as a leading candidate for the 2007 Academic All-American of the Year award, after joining Navy sophomore goalkeeper Lizzie Barnes (3.68; information technology) and Charlotte junior midfielder Lindsey Ozimek (4.00; special education) as the only non-seniors among the 11 players who were named 2006 first team Academic All-Americans. Two other players from the BIG EAST Conference were named to the elite first team: Louisville senior defender Amy Seng (3.95; sports administration) and Seton Hall senior defender Jen Michewicz (4.0; secondary education).

Six of the first teamers have played for teams this season that advanced to the 2006 NCAAs: Jones, Barnes, Seng, Saint Louis senior midfielder Courtney Hulcer (3.94; education), Stanford senior defender Rachel Buehler (3.99; human biology) and North Carolina senior forward Heather O’Reilly (3.40; education). Notre Dame and UNC still are alive for this weekend’s NCAA quarterfinal round while Stanford advanced to the round-of-16 and Navy was a second-round participant.

Jones – whose A-minus grades have come in principles of micro-economics and corporate financial management, in addition to her 17 A grades – has proven to be a prime-time offensive player during her Notre Dame career, as more than half of her career points (10 of 18; 2G-6A) have come during the postseason. Her overall career totals include four goals and 10 assists in 76 games played, with 38 starts. Jones has started 22 times in the 2006 season while appearing in all 24 games, with her 1,766 minutes plated (74/gm) ranking fifth on the team and fourth among the field players, behind Buczkowski, Lorenzen and forward Kerri Hanks.

A talented player with both feet who has seen time at both right and left back, Jones has been a key component in Notre Dame’s 2006 defensive effort that has yielded a 0.33 goals-against average, with the team allowing just 1.92 shots on goal per game (both marks would set ND record). The Irish (23-0-1) have racked up a 78-8 scoring margin this season and have totaled 405 more totals shots than their opponents (532-127; including 233-46 in shots on goal) while facing just three deficits all season, spanning a total of 125 minutes.

Seven of the eight goals allowed by Notre Dame this season have been scored by top-25 opponents and the Irish have not trailed for nearly two months (14 straight games), since facing an early deficit versus sixth-ranked West Virginia on Sept. 29.

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Ashley Jones appeared in every game of the 2004 NCAA championship season, including the title game versus UCLA (pictured).

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Jones – who was invited into training camps with the U.S. Under-20 National Team last spring – assisted on Jill Krivacek’s game-tying goal in the early-season showdown with Santa Clara (3-1) and later scored to cap the scoring in a 2-0 win over Louisville. She also scored in the 5-0 win at Providence and had a pair of assists in the 4-2 BIG EAST title-game victory over Rutgers, including an impressive service from the right flank that helped produce Amanda Cinalli’s running header for a 4-0 lead in that game. She earlier assisted on the goal by Hanks that opened the scoring in the BIG EAST title game (0:57), the quickest goal ever scored in the Notre Dame program’s 83 all-time postseason games. Jones similarly assisted on an early score by Brittany Bock in last week’s NCAA third-round win over Colorado (3-0), yielding her second game-winning assist of the season.

As part of the winningest class in Notre Dame history (.934; 70-4-2), Jones and her fellow juniors have yet to suffer a loss at Alumni Field (39-0-1, from 2004-06), including a current 31-game home winning streak that ranks fourth-longest in D-I history. During her career, she has helped Notre Dame average 3.38 goals per game with a 0.49 goals-against avg., an average per-game shot margin of 22-5, 51 shutouts and 67 games with 0-1 goals allowed (plus 40 wins by 3-plus goals and 18 by a margin of 5-plus).

Jones is a converted midfielder who made the adjustment to outside back during the 2005 season. She provided a key spark off the bench as the top midfield reserve for the team’s 2004 NCAA championship tea,/