Soccer Duo Earn Academic Kudos
11/2/2010 12:00:00 AM | Women's Soccer
Nov. 2, 2010
East Lansing, Mich. - Michigan State juniors Jill Flietstra and Laura Heyboer have been named to the All-District First Team for College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) Academic All-America honors, presented by ESPN. The duo will now advance on to the national ballot, where they are eligible for Academic All-America honors.
To qualify for Academic All-America honors, a student-athlete must have a 3.3 cumulative grade point average, at least sophomore academic standing, and must be a starter or significant reserve for his/her team. First, second, and third teams are selected in each region, with the First Team regional picks advancing on to the national ballot.
Heyboer and Flietstra, both natives of Hudsonville, Mich., are classmates from Unity Christian High School and have been teammates since their earliest days playing the game. The pair has helped Michigan State to back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances in thier first two seasons, the first time in program history that the Spartans were selected to the field in consecutive seasons. Heyboer carries a 3.61 GPA as a Kinesiology major, while Flietstra is a 3.93 student majoring in Criminal Justice.
Heyboer, a forward, leads the Spartans in scoring with a 10-2-22 line. With a pair of goals on Thursday, Oct. 14 at Oakland, she tied Michigan State's career goal record, netting her 38th and 39th against the Golden Grizzlies. Heyboer is now tied with Michele Wise (1986-89) with 39 career markers, and has one game remaining in the regular season of her junior year. Her current 10-2-22 is tied for 21st in points in a single season at MSU - Heyboer also holds a tie for second (51 points in 2008) and 23rd (21 points in an injury-shortened 2009) in the single-season annals. She is also five-points shy of the all-time points record; her 39-16-94 line is only behind Wise (39-21-99). The junior is likely to become the school's first 100-point scorer in school history.
Heyboer's five game-winners this season is tied for third in the single-season recordbook and a personal best for the frontrunner, who had four in both her freshman and sophomore seasons. With 13 career game-winners, she sits in second place in that category, two behind school recordholder Lauren Hill.
While Heyboer rewrites the MSU offensive recordbook, goalie Flietstra is doing her part to require several rewrites on the defensive end as well. Flietstra currently holds the number one spot for career GAA (0.74), she is currently in eighth for career saves with 161, and is now standing alone in third place in shutouts with 18. The junior is tied with Erin O'Connell (1992-1995) in sixth in career wins (20); nine of which have come in her 16 starts this season. She has 11 shutouts this season, one shy of tying the single-season mark set by Nicole Galus in 2005.
The pair and their team will wrap up their Big Ten season when the Spartans (9-5-4. 3-3-3 Big Ten) travel to Ohio State on Friday evening for a 7:30 game on the Big Ten Network.
