Athlete of the Week: Teamworks Staff Member Nikki Scott an All-American

Worcester—Worcester State women's soccer student-athlete Nikki Scott from Berlin has been selected as a Capital One Division III Academic Third-Team All-American by the College Sports Information Directors of America (Co-SIDA).

The honor for Scott makes her the first WSU student-athlete to be named an Academic All-American since baseball standout Eric Swedberg was distinguished in 2002.

Scott was one of 12 defenders to be recognized on the squad as she joined Castleton State's Courtney Chadburn (N. Clarendon, VT), WPI's Hailey Taylor (Colusa, CA), Endicott's Colleen Pepin (Fairhaven, MA) and MIT's Kaitlyn Nealson (Yorktown Heights, NY) as the representatives from District I that includes the region of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont. Overall, six of the 33 honorees who garnered the prestigious accolade were from public institutions nationwide.

The three-time All-MASCAC Academic honoree, sports an impressive cumulative grade point average as she has been on the Worcester State Student-Athlete Honor Roll in every semester enrolled and on the dean's list seven times. Scott, who transferred from UMass Amherst, is in her senior year of eligibility. She is taking classes this semester as a graduate assistant in the business department to earn her Master of Science (Leadership concentration).

As an undergraduate, Scott was inducted into the Sigma Delta Beta and Omricon Beta Kappa honor societies while she also interned at the CPA firm Bisceglia, Steiman & Fudeman in the spring of 2010.

Scott, a two-time All-MASCAC first-team defender, has anchored the back line of the women's soccer team that has made four conference tournament appearances in the last four campaigns including semifinals berths in 2008 and 2009, a MASCAC Tournament Championship in 2010 and a league title game appearance this past season.

Her defense at center back was a big piece of the puzzle as she helped lead Worcester State to its first-ever ECAC Division III New England Women's Soccer crown last month. The Lancers also led the conference in both goals against average (0.75) and tied for the league lead in goals allowed (17).

Scott finished with four-year totals of seven goals and three assists for 17 points while she also helped the Blue and Gold blank 30 opponents in 70 games. While Scott was on the field, opponents were held to a 0.969 goals against average.

Co-SIDA, which began its recognition of NCAA scholar-athletes in the 1950's, has honored more than 15,000 deserving student-athletes across all divisions in 12 sports. To be eligible, a student-athlete must be a starter or a key reserve, maintain a cumulative grade point average of 3.30 on a 4.00 scale and reached sophomore athletic and academic standings and be nominated by his/her sports information director.

This marks the first year that the College Division (Non-Division I) has been expanded to include Divisions II, III, the NAIA, Canadian schools and two-year institutions. The regions were spread out to include eight distinct geographic locations across the United States.

Scott is now the eighth Worcester State student-athlete to be recognized as an Academic All-American.

Press release also appears on the Worcester State College website.