GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. – Colorado Mesa placed a pair of players on the Division II Academic All- America women's soccer teams selected by the College Sports Communicators.
Forward
Lila Dere and defender
Michaela Dangler both earned second-team selections. Three Academic All-American teams were chosen, with 12 players on each team.
It is the second career selection for both players, as Dangler made the first team while Dere was selected to the third team in 2021. Dere and Dangler are two of only six Division II players to receive a repeat selection this year.
The two Grand Junction natives have combined for four of the five Academic All-American selections in CMU women's soccer history. Sam Borneo is the only other Maverick to achieve that recognition with her first team selection in 2013.
College Sports Communicators (CSC) is the organization formerly known as CoSIDA, which is made up of each institution and each conference's sports information directors and athletic communications personnel. The Academic All-American teams were voted on from the Academic All-District nominees.
To be nominated for All-District, student-athletes must have at least a 3.5 GPA, up from the 3.0 requirement of previous years, and must have played in over 50% of their team's matches. In addition, schools were limited to six nominations per gender.
Dere continues her remarkable season in which she swept the RMAC Player of the Year, RMAC Academic Player of the Year and South Central Region Player of the Year awards and became the program's first-ever D2CCA All-American and sixth-ever United Soccer Coaches All-American. The redshirt sophomore led the nation in goals, shots and shots on goal while maintaining a 3.74 GPA as a business and entrepreneurship major.
Dangler, who preceded Dere by winning the 2021 RMAC Academic Player of the Year award, completes her collegiate career with a perfect 4.0 GPA as an elementary education major. Dangler's spectacular career also featured a 2021 RMAC Defensive Player of the Year award, and earlier this month she became the first CMU soccer player to be a three-time Academic All-District selection.
Colorado Mesa was one of only five Division II schools with multiple Academic All-American honorees, and the only school out of the five to place both selections on the first or second teams.
Minnesota State Mankato's Jenny Vitter was named the Division II Academic Player of the Year after scoring 12 goals and 28 points with a perfect 4.0 GPA as a biology major. Elsewhere in the RMAC, Colorado School of Mines had a first-team selection in defender Katie Koehler while UCCS had a pair of third-team picks in goalkeeper Alexis Walker and defender Abby Barhydt.
