General | 1/3/2019 12:56:00 PM

    WEST LIBERTY, W.Va. – The West Liberty University athletic department is celebrating the academic accomplishments of its student-athletes after setting a department record with a combined 3.19 GPA for the fall semester.
    Nearly 300 Hilltopper student-athletes posted GPAs of 3.00 or higher and 15 of West Liberty's 18 intercollegiate athletic programs reached or exceeded the 3.00 team GPA mark. Six Hilltopper squads recorded team GPAs of 3.50 or better.
    Individually, 62 West Liberty student-athletes achieved perfect 4.00 GPAs during the fall with 171 – nearly 40 percent – finishing the semester with GPAs at or above 3.50 and 287 checking in at 3.00 or higher. Sixteen of the 18 intercollegiate sports teams had at least one student-athlete with a 4.00 GPA.
    "Records are made to be broken and this is tangible evidence that our student-athletes are as committed to competing in the classroom as they are on the playing field," athletic director Lynn Ullom said. "I'm thrilled to see the hard work of our student-athletes and coaches rewarded in such an impressive fashion. Congratulations on a job well done."
    The Hilltoppers' regionally-ranked volleyball squad led the way for the department with a 3.65 team GPA. Fifteen of WLU's 16 volleyball players topped the 3.00 GPA mark with 12 posting GPAs of 3.50 or better and six recording perfect 4.00 GPAs for the semester.
    Women's Tennis was next at 3.58, followed closely by Women's Soccer (3.56), Softball (3.55), Women's Basketball (3.52) and Women's Golf (3.50). Teams posting combined GPAs of 3.00 or higher also included Women's Acrobatics & Tumbling, Men's and Women's Cross Country, Baseball, Men's Tennis, Women's Track, Men's Golf, Men's Basketball and Men's Soccer.
    A trio of Hilltopper student-athletes earned regional and national honors for their academic accomplishments during the semester. Caitlin deVries (women's soccer), Stephanie Leonard (volleyball) and Brandon Morrison (football) received Google Cloud Academic All-District honors in voting by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA).
    Morrison, a senior defensive back from Huntington, W.Va., was also honored as West Liberty's 12th NCAA Division II Academic All-American. Morrison's selection marked the seventh consecutive year that WLU has produced at least one NCAA Division II Academic All-American.
    A charter member of the NCAA Division II Mountain East Conference, West Liberty has more than 400 student-athletes competing across a broad spectrum of intercollegiate sports. These include men's football, cross country, basketball, wrestling, track, tennis, baseball, golf and soccer along with women's acrobatics & tumbling, softball, volleyball, cross country, basketball, track, tennis, golf and soccer.
    West Liberty University offers nearly 70 undergraduate majors and 30 programs and a growing number of graduate programs.