CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – Six members of the Virginia women’s golf team were named to the All-ACC Academic Team today (June 20). The six selections matched the most of any ACC school. Four of the six were repeat honorees.
The players recognized were junior Jennifer Cleary (Wilmington, Del.), sophomores Megan Propeck (Leawood, Kan.) and Amanda Sambach (Pinehurst, N.C.), junior Rebecca Skoler (Needham, Mass.), graduate student Riley Smyth (Cary, N.C.) and senior Celeste Valinho (Jacksonville, Fla.).
Cleary, Smyth and Valinho were named to the squad for the third consecutive year while Sambach was a two-time selection.
Sambach was the ACC Individual Champion while also earning first-team All-America honors from Golfweek and the Women’s Golf Coaches Association. She was a finalist for both the Division I PING Women’s Golf Coaches Association Player of the Year honor and the ANNIKA Award, both of which are presented to the nation’s top female collegiate golfer. She set the UVA record during the season with three individual wins.
Cleary was UVA’s top finisher in three events highlighted by a fifth-place showing at the Mercedes-Benz Collegiate. In her first competitive season, Propeck appeared in all 10 tournaments and posted a 74.11 stroke average. Later this summer she will compete in the Women’s U.S. Open.
Skoler was the recipient of UVA’s Distinguished Student-Athlete Scholarship Award at annual all-sports awards program and one of the athletic department’s recipients of ACC Top Six for Service Award. Smyth played in 39 tournaments during her career and helped the Cavaliers finish 24th at this year’s NCAA Championships. Valinho was second on the team in stroke average (73.42) and posted three top-15 finishes during the season.
Minimum academic requirements for selection to the All-ACC Academic Team are a 3.0 grade point average for the previous semester and a 3.0 cumulative average during one’s academic career for undergraduate students. The student-athlete must have participated in at least 50% of their team’s contests.
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