Neff, Powers Earn NGCA All-America Scholar Honors
7/12/2011 12:00:00 AM | Women's Golf
July 12, 2011
EAST LANSING, Mich. - Aimee Neff and Caroline Powers have been named to the 2011 National Golf Coaches Association (NGCA) All-America Scholar Division I Team.
The criteria for selection to the NGCA All-America Scholar Team are some of the most stringent in all of college athletics. The minimum cumulative GPA is 3.50 and student-athletes must have competed in at least 50 percent of the college's regularly scheduled competitive rounds during the year.
Neff graduated this past May with a 3.66 GPA in communication. She becomes the first player in program history to earn NGCA All-America Scholar honors four times in her career. Neff was also a three-time Academic All-Big Ten selection and earned the Big Ten Conference Medal of honor in 2011, which is presented annually to a male and female student-athlete at each conference institution for academic and athletic excellence.
Neff is one of only three players at MSU to earn All-Big Ten honors four times. She was a first-team all-conference selection this year for the first time in her career after earning second-team honors in 2008, 2009 and 2010. For players who have completed their eligibility, Neff ranks fourth in the school record books with her 76.10 scoring average, and she recorded 13 Top-10 finishes.
Powers, an education major who recently completed her sophomore year, owns a 3.82 GPA. She also made the NGCA All-Scholar Team as a freshman.
In just her second season in East Lansing, Powers burst onto the national scene as one of the elite players in the country while establishing a new standard of excellence for the Michigan State women's golf program. The Bowling Green, Ohio, product set a school record with her 73.53 scoring average and her sixth-place finish at the NCAA Championships was the best-ever showing by a Spartan. Powers finished in the Top 10 at seven tournaments, including the last four in a row, and won her first collegiate tournament at the Lady Buckeye Invitational on April 17. In addition, she led the team in scoring in nine of the team's 11 events.
For her outstanding season, Powers was a first-team All-Big Ten selection and garnered NGCA honorable mention All-America honors.
Neff is continuing her golf career playing on the LPGA Futures Tour this summer, while Powers is getting ready to compete at the Hooters Collegiate Team Championship Aug. 2-4 in Dahlongega, Ga., and the World University Games in Shenzhen, China, in mid-August.
Players Mentioned
