HOUGHTON, N.Y. – Houghton field hockey has been honored with team and individual academic honors from the National Field Hockey Coaches Association.

The team was awarded a 2020 National Team Academic Award for maintaining a team GPA of 3.0 of higher during the fall 2020 semester. Houghton was one of 147 NCAA programs recognized. All nine Empire 8 schools earned the honor.

Houghton's fall team GPA was 3.41.

In addition to the team award, nine Highlanders were named to the 2020 NFHCA Division III National Academic Squad for achieving a GPA of 3.3 or higher through the fall semester. They join a list of 2,050 student-athletes from 140 Division III institutions to be honored.

The Highlanders honored include:

Molly Brizzell
Hannah Daniels (among only 220 four-year honorees)
Sofia Gildemeister
Hannah Greidanus
Zoey Kasper
Zoe Modesto
Leanne Plunkett
Cedar Smith
Lindsey Waters

In addition, Daniels, Brizzell and Greidanus were among a group of 450 student-athletes (25 from the Empire 8) recognized as NFHCA Division III Scholars of Distinction. This select group achieved a GPA of 3.9 or higher during the fall semester.
 
The National Field Hockey Coaches Association (NFHCA) is a nonprofit organization serving field hockey coaches and supporters of the game from across the United States. The mission of the organization is to stimulate the professional development of coaching leadership within the sport of field hockey. The NFHCA strives to cultivate and recognize the professional contributions of its membership and to foster and promote the growth of the sport. The NFHCA is responsible for providing a recognizable presence and voice in regard to legislation affecting the sport as well as interscholastic and intercollegiate programs.