Feb. 21, 2014

NOTRE DAME, Ind. – Twenty-two University of Notre Dame student-athletes from five Fighting Irish fall sports earned Atlantic Coast Conference All-Academic honors.

To be eligible for consideration for the All-ACC Academic team, a student-athlete, regardless of classification, must have earned a 3.00 grade-point average for the previous semester and maintained a 3.00 cumulative average during his or her academic career.

Notre Dame’s total of 22 student-athletes honored from the five fall sports in which the Fighting Irish competed, ranked second only to Duke’s 23 honorees.

The men’s and women’s cross country teams had 11 student-athletes (six men and five women) earn All-ACC Academic honors, making up half of Notre Dame’s total. It also was the most by any ACC school.

Those named to the men’s team included: Timothy Ball (So., Piscataway, N.J., Undeclared); Michael Clevenger (So., Decatur, Ill., Science Pre-Professional); Martin Grady (Sr., Burr Ridge, Ill., Accountancy); Jake Kildoo (Jr., Grove City, Pa., Philosophy); Patrick Lesiewicz (Sr., Schaumburg, Ill., Mathematics) and J.P. Malette (Gr., Windsor, Ontario, MBA).

The five student-athletes named fro the Irish women’s team were Alexa Aragon (Sr., Billings, Mont., Science Pre-Professional); Kelly Curran (Sr., Bloomington, Ill., Science-Business), Hannah Eckstein (Jr., Middletown, N.J., International Economics), Gabriella Gonzales (Jr., Florence, Ky., Biology) and Molly Seidel (So., Hartland, Wis., Anthropology).

Notre Dame had more men’s soccer players named to the ACC All-Academic team than any other school with six players from that national championship squad selected to the list. Senior Harrison Shipp, finance major from Lake Forest, Ill., headlined the team and was named the ACC’s Men’s Soccer Scholar-Athlete of the Year. Also on the team were: Patrick Hodan (So., Brookfield, Wisc., Undeclared); Evan Panken (So., Edina, Minn., Science Pre-Professional); Luke Mishu (Sr., Knoxville, Tenn., Psychology), Grant Van De Casteele (Sr., Plano, Texas, Finance) and Patrick Wall (Sr., Sugarland, Texas, Aerospace Engineering).

The women’s soccer team had three honorees: Mandy Laddish (Sr., Lee’s Summit, Mo., Marketing), Cari Roccaro (So., East Islip, N.Y., Sociology) and Elizabeth Tucker (Sr., Jacksonville, Fla,., Accountancy).

Volleyball players Maggie Brindock (Sr., Rockwall, N.J., Film, Television and Theatre) and Sammie Brown (Sr., Santa Barbara, Calif., Management Consulting) were the final two Notre Dame student-athletes to earn all-ACC Academic accolades.

–ND–