Women's Basketball | 8/11/2017 1:00:00 PM

STATESBORO, Ga. – Georgia Southern athletics is once again at the top of the Sun Belt Conference academically as two Eagle teams finished the 2016-17 season with the top GPA among member schools. The women's basketball team sported the top GPA for a second consecutive year, while men's tennis collected the top GPA this season.
Women's basketball carried a 3.28 team GPA for the 2016-17 year, earning the top spot among Sun Belt schools for a second time. The Eagles' 3.28 GPA was higher than last year's top mark of 3.23 GPA and collectively, all eight of Georgia Southern's women's sports featured GPAs of 3.10 or higher.

"This is a great honor for our players and our program to be named the Sun Belt Women's Basketball Academic Award champion for the second consecutive year," Head Coach Kip Drown said. "It is a tribue to the efforts of our student-athletes, coaches, administration and academic support staff continuing to buy into our department's mantra of 'Rings, Diplomas and Leaders!"

Men's tennis, meanwhile, carried a 3.51 team GPA for the 2016-17 year. The men earned the top spot among Sun Belt schools. The Eagles' 3.51 GPA was highlighted by three athletes achieving a 3.0 or higher, five achieving a 3.5 or higher, and one achieving a 4.0. Five Eagles were named to the ITA Scholar-Athlete list following their success in the classroom.

"It's the second highest GPA in team history, which is great," Head Coach Sander Koning said. "We pride ourselves in being competitive on and off the court and I believe we have shown this on both fronts last year. Our team GPA would not have been possible without the help of Reggie Simpkins and his staff over at Academic Services. We are very fortunate as an athletic department to have those resources available to us. I know Reggie and his staff work very hard to see our student-athletes succeed." 

Overall, Georgia Southern student-athletes combined for a 3.23 institutional GPA in 2016-17. Conference-wide, 122 programs in the Sun Belt collected a 3.0 GPA or better out of 173 teams.