It has only been two months since women’s soccer standout Carrie Reaver graduated as Longwood’s 2021 co-valedictorian, but she’s already made sure her future office space will be well-decorated.
Adding to a laundry list of prestigious awards that includes Big South Women’s Soccer Scholar-Athlete of the Year and the Big South Christenberry Award, Reaver was named to the CoSIDA Academic All-America Team Monday by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA). Reaver was the only student-athlete from a Division I institution in the Commonwealth of Virginia to appear on the 33-woman list and the lone representative from the Big South.
The award caps a decorated collegiate career that saw the Thurmont, Md., native graduate this past spring with a perfect 4.0 grade point average as a double major in biology and Spanish, while also anchoring Longwood’s defense as a four-year starter and three-time All-Big South selection. She is the third Longwood student-athlete to be named both valedictorian and Academic All-American in the same year, joining women’s lacrosse alumna Dana Joss (2020) and fellow women’s soccer alumna Kelsey McDonald (2015).
Currently an associate researcher at the Mount Sinai Brain Institute in New York City and bound for medical school in 2022, the Academic All-America citation is the latest for one of the most decorated student-athletes in Longwood athletics history. Beginning with her Big South Women’s Soccer Freshman of the Year award in 2017, she went on to be named to the All-Big South team three times, including first-team recognition as a senior.
Reaver played in 63 games with 59 starts during her Lancer career, amassing 5,755 minutes on the pitch to help the Lancers to a 30-22-11 overall record and a 19-8-9 mark in Big South play. She captained the team as a junior and senior, including this past season when Longwood opened the season on a seven-game unbeaten streak and reached the semifinals of the Big South Championship tournament.
Also a three-time CoSIDA Academic All-District III honoree, Reaver becomes Longwood’s third Academic All-American of the Division I era and 14th overall, dating back to 1983. She joins Joss and McDonald as the most recent additions to that list and gives Longwood Academic All-America awards in back-to-back years for the third time, following former women’s golfer Tina Barrett’s three consecutive awards from 1986-88 and former baseball player Evan Weinstein’s two straight in 2003 and 2004.
Reaver’s Academic All-America citation adds to a record-setting year in the classroom for Longwood student-athletes in 2020-21, who set department GPA records for both the spring of 2021 and the academic year as a whole. Reaver was named to the President’s List both semesters – and every semester at Longwood – and became the fourth Longwood student-athlete of the past seven years to be named Longwood’s valedictorian and winner of the Sally Barksdale Hargrett Prize alongside McDonald (2015), Spradlin (2019) and Joss (2020).
Support AFP
Share
Contributors
