ST. LOUIS - Senior Mel Routledge and junior Raquel Rattray were named to the 2008 Missouri Valley Conference Women's Soccer Scholar-Athlete Team, as announced by the league office Friday morning. Routledge was a first-team member and Rattray was an honorable mention honoree.
Routledge, an honorable mention scholar-athlete last season, was a second-team All-Valley honoree in 2008. She led ISU in goals (7) assists (4) and points (18), tying her career-high marks from her freshman season in all three categories. This season, she moved into second place on the ISU career list in goals (20) assists (12) points (52) and shots (178). She had a streak of four goals in five games during the year and was named Prairie Farms/MVC Scholar-Athlete of the Week Oct. 7. She scored the game-winning goal against Creighton with 1.4 seconds left in regulation.
Rattray was a first-team All-Valley selection for the second-consecutive season after recording nine points on three goals and three assists, all career-high marks. She scored her first-career goal against Loyola and added scores against Butler and Indiana State. She only had two points in her career entering this season on one assist in each of her first two seasons. She also anchored a Redbird defense that posted a 1.03 goals against average and seven shutouts on the season. The Evanston, Ill., native has a 3.69 cumulative GPA in English and has been on the AFNI Athletics Honor Roll every semester at ISU. The Calgary, Alberta, native has a 3.34 cumulative grade-point average (GPA) in elementary education. She was a first-team scholar-athlete in 2007.
A total of 40 student-athletes were nominated for the Valley's scholar-athlete team. The criteria for the honor parallels the CoSIDA (College Sports Information Directors of America) standards for Academic All-America voting. Nominees must be starters or important reserves with at least a 3.00 cumulative GPA (on a 4.00 scale). Also, students must have participated in at least 75 percent of the regular-season matches. Student-athletes must have reached sophomore athletic and academic standing at their institution (true freshmen and redshirt freshmen were not eligible) and must have completed at least one full academic year at their institution.
