Academic All-America of the Year® Honors Bestowed on Curran

BOSTON, Mass. – Senior shortstop Sam Curran (Quincy, Mass.) of the Wentworth Institute of Technology softball team has become the first student-athlete in school history to be selected as Academic All-America® of the Year after she was named to the first team of the 2015 Capital One Academic All-America® Division III Softball Team.

A Biomedical Engineering major, Curran also becomes the first Leopard student-athlete to earn three Academic All-America® honors and picks up Wentworth's 11th such honor since 1995. Additionally, she is the fourth student-athlete to earn this distinguished honor more than once during the career, joining Kevin Hanlon (basketball; 1999, 2000), Jamie Weiss (at-large (ice hockey); 2002, 2003), and Sarah Bearse (soccer; 2002, 2003).

The Capital One Division III Academic All-America® program is being financially supported by the NCAA Division III national governance structure, to assist CoSIDA with handling the awards fulfillment aspects for the 2014-15 Division III Academic All-America® teams program.

Seventeen of the 34 members of the Capital One Academic All-America® softball teams have a 3.90 or better grade-point average, with three achieving a perfect 4.00 GPA. Additionally, the 11 members of the Capital One Academic All-America® Division III softball first team maintain an average GPA of 3.92.

Curran, who was a Second Team Academic All-America® in softball last season and a First Team Academic All-America® for volleyball this past fall, wrapped up her softball career by being named First Team All-Commonwealth Coast Conference and the CCC Senior Scholar-Athlete of the Year as she batted .424 (36-for-85) with eight doubles, two triples, two home runs, 10 stolen bases, and 14 RBI while having an on-base percentage of .479 and a slugging percentage of .635. She had a career-high four hits twice this season, including three doubles in a 20-14 win over Bay Path on April 15. Curran was also the winning pitcher in two of the Leopards' four victories this season.

For her career Curran started 128 of 128 games in which she played and batted .358 (126-for-352) with 98 runs scored, 32 doubles, eight triples, six home runs, 31 stolen bases (in 31 attempts), and 50 RBI. She had a career on-base percentage of .442 and a career slugging percentage of .545. She is second in program history in runs scored, doubles, and triples, third in hits, total bases, walks, and stolen bases, and fourth in batting average, slugging percentage, on-base percentage, and games played.

As impressive as Curran's numbers were on the diamond, her work in the classroom is equally as impressive. Sporting a near-perfect GPA, she is a member of Chi Alpha Sigma, the national student-athlete honor society; was the 2014-15 recipient of the Wentworth Bowl, the highest honor a student can receive in recognition of outstanding, overall participation in Wentworth activities; and was also the 2015 recipient of the President's Award for Biomedical Engineering.

To be eligible for Academic All-America® consideration, a student-athlete must be a varsity starter or key reserve, maintain a cumulative GPA of 3.30 on a scale of 4.00, have reached sophomore athletic and academic standings at his/her current institution and be nominated by his/her sports information director.

Since the program's inception in 1952, CoSIDA has bestowed Academic All-America® honors on more than 20,000 student-athletes in Divisions I, II, III and NAIA, covering all NCAA championship sports.