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EAST STROUDSBURG - East Stroudsburg University senior back
Andrea Polanco has been named the PSAC "Champion Scholar" for the 2016 PSAC Women's Soccer Championships as the student-athlete with the highest grade-point average at the championship site, announced Friday.
Polanco (Otisville, N.Y./Minisink Valley), a Public Health major, has a 4.0 GPA through 98 credits at ESU.
A two-year starter for the Warriors' defense, Polanco has started 41 of ESU's 42 games over the last two seasons.
She has helped ESU, the two-time defending PSAC champion, reach the PSAC semifinals for the third straight year and the sixth time in the last 10 seasons.
Polanco has started 18 games and played in all 19 this fall for the Warriors (14-4-1), contributing to 10 shutouts, including a school-record eight straight PSAC shutouts from September 7 through October 5.
She started all 23 games at center back on ESU's 2015 PSAC and NCAA Division II Atlantic Region championship team. As a sophomore in 2014, Polanco played in 15 games and started the final two games of the year, a 1-0 win over Kutztown in the PSAC championship game and a 0-0 (2OT) tie vs. WV Wesleyan in the NCAA Tournament.
Polanco was previously named to the CoSIDA Academic All-District team this fall, along with senior midfielder
Shea Neal and senior back
Hannah Gombos.
She is the first ESU women's soccer player to be named a PSAC "Champion Scholar" since the program was started in 2011-12.
Polanco and junior Sydney McCarthy (field hockey) were both named PSAC "Champion Scholar" in their respective sports on Friday.
They are ESU's seventh and eighth recipients of the award.
ESU's PSAC "Champion Scholars"
2011-12 - Lisa Lower, women's cross country
2012-13 - Tony Vorndran, wrestling
2013-14 - Joseph Hoy, wrestling
2014-15 - Dan Ingulli, wrestling
Alex Zubko, men's outdoor track & field
2015-16 - Danielle Swingle, women's outdoor track & field
2016-17 - Sydney McCarthy, field hockey
Andrea Polanco, women's soccer
