Eight players from the 14-player Greens Farms Academy varsity field hockey team earned national academic honors this week. Three seniors and five juniors were named to the 2019 Optimal Performance Association/National Field Hockey Coaches Association National Academic Squad.
Seniors Nicole Farber, Laila Pina, and Kara Ventura along with juniors Zoe Koskinas, Kate Millard, Faithe Murphy, Keely O’Shea, and Rari Bellingeri were honored for their abilities in both the classroom and on the field.
“Considering we had 14 kids on our entire varsity roster — and it was a tight-knit group — to have eight members earn this honor is pretty amazing,” GFA head coach Liz Schuellein said. “We did not have it easy with our game schedule and I’m so impressed with the diligence and poise these young ladies proved daily in both the classroom and out on the field.”
Millard and Ventura, thanks to their GPAs of 3.9 or higher, earned a Scholar of Distinction nods, as well.
Farber was a first-team All-NEPSAC and second-team All-FAA player who spearheaded — along with defenders Bellingeri, Millard and Ventura — the Dragons’ seven shutouts this season, tying a school record set in 2013.
Koskinas was an All-FAA first-team choice, an All-NEPSAC Honorable Mention and WNEPSFHA All-Star; Millard was an All-FAA honorable mention; and O’Shea was an All-FAA Second Teamer and All-NEPSAC Honorable Mention.
Pina, Farber, Murphy and Millard were captains for the team.
The High School National Academic Squad program recognizes those high school seniors and juniors who have achieved a minimum cumulative, unweighted grade-point average of 3.50 out of 4.0 — or the equivalent — through the first quarter of the 2019-20 school year.
More than 2,300 student-athletes from more than 270 high schools across the country were honored this season.