May 2, 2006

SAN DIEGO - Five Aztec basketball players, Kate Eveland, Audrey Green, Jessica Huettl, Erin Jackson and Tamika Lipford, were honored Monday evening for their performance off the court at the 12th Annual Scholar-Athlete Awards Program at Montezuma Hall.

Eveland was one of 14 SDSU student-athletes to earn the Malik Award, given to those who have achieved the highest grade-point average each semester. Eveland has a cumulative GPA of 3.76 and earned a 4.0 during the fall of 2005. An international business major, she has been named to the Dean's List on two occasions and also garnered a pair of Monty Awards (3.5 semester GPA or higher) at the awards banquet. Eveland earned academic all-conference and scholar-athlete honors from the Mountain West following the 2004-05 campaign.

Green (Fall 2005), Huettl (Spring 2005) and Jackson (Spring, Fall 2005) each received the department's Big Red Award, which is given to student-athletes with semester GPAs of 3.2 or above. Guard Tamika Lipford, meanwhile, received a Monty Award for her academic excellence during the Fall of 2005.

Since the inception of the SDSU scholar-athlete program in 1994, nearly 1800 student-athletes have been honored for maintaining a 3.2 GPA. On the whole, the 2005 NCAA Graduation-Rate Report shows that 81 percent of SDSU student-athletes have graduated between 1989-90 and 1998-99.