BETHLEHEM, Pa. - Recognized for its success on the field late last week with six All-Patriot League honorees, the success of the Navy women's soccer team in the classroom was recognized on Tuesday with two players earning spots on the Academic All-Patriot League Team. Senior midfielder
Victoria Tran headlined this announcement as she was named the Patriot League Women's Soccer Scholar-Athlete of the Year for the second straight season. She was joined on the 2021 Academic All-Patriot League Team by sophomore defender
Chloe Dawson. Overall, Navy was one of two schools in the conference with multiple players on this exclusive 11-person team that honors the best and brightest both on and off the field.
Selected to the All-Patriot League First Team on Friday, Tran is now a four-time All-Patriot League honoree and a back-to-back recipient of the league's Women's Soccer Scholar-Athlete of the Year award. A stalwart throughout her career at the Naval Academy both on and off the field, Tran, an honors robotics & control engineering major with a 3.97 cumulative GPA, has continued to add to her trophy case this fall. Suiting up in 16 games for the Mids as a senior, Tran has assisted on one goal, while taking 16 shots in 1,168 minutes of action in the midfield and helping Navy secure the second seed in the 2021 Patriot League Tournament as the offensive midfielder on a squad that scores 1.74 goals per game, tops in the conference. As a result of her success in competition and in the classroom, Tran was selected as a third-team CoSIDA Academic All-American as a sophomore in 2019 before reaching first-team Academic All-America status as a junior in 2020-21. She was the only non-senior or grad student honored on CoSIDA's first team last season. Additionally, Tran was selected to the 2020-21 United Soccer Coaches Women's Scholar All-America Second Team. The Clarksville, Md. native currently ranks top-10 in both the Naval Academy's Overall Order of Merit and Military Order of Merit for the Class of 2022.
As a program, this is the 11th time that a Navy student-athlete has won this top award and fourth time that a Midshipmen has repeated as the scholar-athlete ...
Victoria Tran: 2020-21, 2021
Sydney Fortson: 2018, 2019
Elizabeth Hoerner: 2012, 2013
Beth Reed: 2009
Lizzie Barnes: 2008
Kate Macfarlane: 2001
Nicole Aunapu: 1997, 1998
*(Note, the first Academic All-Patriot League Team was named in 2010, prior to that season only a Scholar-Athlete of the Year was selected by the conference)
One of the most well-regarded young defenders in the league, Dawson is equally adept on the field as she is in the classroom as a robotics & control engineering major. The Patriot League Rookie of the Year in 2020-21, she was named last week to the All-Patriot League Second Team for her efforts over 18 regular season games and 1,472 minutes of action. Bolstered by Dawson's play, Navy's defensive ranks second in the conference in goals against average (1.02) and shutouts (6). When she flips the field, Dawson is also one of the league's top playmakers as she ranks sixth with five assists. Academically, she has earned her way on the USNA's Commandant's List in each of her first two semesters and currently resides in the top-10 in the Naval Academy's Class of 2024 in Overall Order of Merit and in the top-25 in Military Order of Merit.
This is the fifth straight year that the Navy women's soccer program has had multiple student-athletes selected to the Patriot League All-Academic Team. Most recently, Tran has been joined in the postseason announcement by
Kristina Dzhandzhapanyan ('21) for the 2020-21 campaign and Cadie Higginson ('20) in 2019.
All-time, Tran is one of three Midshipmen to have earned three nods on the Patriot League All-Academic Team following Sydney Fortson ('20), who was honored in 2017, 2018 and 2019 and Meghan Hegarty ('18), who was garnered accolades in 2015, 2016 and 2017.
Eight of 10 Patriot League institutions were represented on the 2021 Patriot League All-Academic Team.
To be eligible for the Scholar-Athlete of the Year award and the Academic All-Patriot League Team, a student-athlete must have at least a 3.20 cumulative grade point average and be a starter or key player in his/her sport. Freshmen or student-athletes in their first academic year at their school are not eligible for the honor.
The Patriot League Scholar-Athlete of the Year for each individual sport comprises the pool of nominees for the Patriot League Male and Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year awards given out during the summer.
The voting for the all-Academic squads was conducted by the League's women's soccer sports information directors, who could not vote for their own student-athletes.
2021 Women's Soccer Scholar-Athlete of the Year: Victoria Tran, Navy, Sr., M
2021 Women's Soccer Academic All-League Team
Tate Jordan, American, Sr., F
Julianna Stureman, Boston University, Jr., M
Rylee Donaldson, Bucknell, Jr., F
Hannah Pinkus, Colgate, Sr., M
Sophia Hudson, Lafayette, Sr., M
Courtney Supp, Lehigh, Sr., F/M
Sarah Bayer, Loyola Maryland, Sr., F
Chloe Kuminkoski, Loyola Maryland, So., D
Paige Sim, Loyola Maryland, Jr., GK
Chloe Dawson, Navy, So., D
Victoria Tran, Navy, Sr., M
