Lady Jackets’ Stroup Receives Academic Honor (11/3/05)

BILLINGS, MT – Montana State-Billings women’s soccer player Ally Stroup was named to the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District VII Second Team on Thursday by the College Sports Information Directors of America.  Stroup is a junior midfielder from Ojai, Calif. 

Stroup has a 3.61 cumulative grade point average majoring in Psychology.  She has earned academic honors in two of four semesters at MSU Billings including a 4.00 GPA last spring.

Stroup has steadily climbed the ranks in the MSU Billings school record book.  Her first point next season will tie her with Margot Merrill-Johnson as the all-time leading scorer in school history.  Stroup led the Yellowjackets with nine goals, seven assists, and 25 points this season.  For her career she is third in school history for goals scored (24), first for assists (22) and third for points (70).  She is also second in school history with eight career game winning goals; four of her game winners came this year.

The Yellowjackets recently completed their second consecutive season with double digit wins.  It is the first time in the program’s history that has been accomplished.  Stroup has played a large role in the program’s emergence as a winning team and has been one of the team’s top two scorers in each of her three years.

The CoSIDA Academic All-America program divides the country into eight districts.  Schools from Montana are part of District VII, which also includes Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Alberta and Saskatchewan.  Nominees for the All-District VII Women’s Soccer Team could come from any Division II, Division III, or NAIA school in any of those states.