MONMOUTH, Ill. – Monmouth College’s new women’s lacrosse team has made the grade academically in their inaugural season, scoring a pair of prestigious national academic honors from the Intercollegiate Women’s Lacrosse Coaches’ Association (IWLCA).
Morgan Holle (Oskaloosa, Iowa/Oskaloosa) scored the team’s first individual national academic honor from the IWLCA, earning inclusion on its academic honor roll. A junior mathematics major, Holle was among a select group nationwide to qualify for the honor. Student-athletes must hold junior, senior or graduate student status and have earned a cumulative GPA of 3.50 or higher. A defender this spring, Holle is the daughter of Richelle Pipho-Holle and James Holle.
Holle’s high GPA helped land the Fighting Scots on the IWLCA’s academic honor squad list. To earn the award, teams must have posted a team GPA of 3.0 or higher for the academic year. Monmouth’s 17 players, who represented 12 different majors, easily made the list with a combined GPA of 3.19.
“Performing at a high level on the field and in the classroom is not an easy feat and can be challenging for first-year student-athletes,” said coach Elizabeth Demara, whose first team at Monmouth had six freshmen. “Our players not only adjusted well to the rigors of college athletics, they also excelled in the classroom. An award of this magnitude can’t be won by any one student-athlete. In order to be successful as a team in the classroom, it takes everyone on the roster to perform at the highest level, as it does on the field. Our inaugural team has set a high academic standard and it’s one we’ll strive for each year to follow.”
Earlier this year, nearly half the squad earned All-Academic status from the Midwest Women’s Lacrosse Conference.
