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Basketball’s Amanda Corral nets second Academic All-MAC honor

April 24, 2014
Amanda Corral

Amanda Corral

Junior guard Amanda Corral (Hobart, Indiana/Hobart) was named to the Mid-American Conference’s All-Academic team for the second-straight season as one of 10 athletes to earn the honor. She is the first NIU player in program history to earn Academic All-MAC distinction twice in her career with one year of eligibility for the award remaining.

Corral, a junior shooting guard for the NIU women’s basketball team, is a pre-physical therapy major with a perfect 4.0 grade point average.

“Amanda works extremely hard and she never tires when she’s on the court. To be the first player in the program to earn the award twice speaks volumes to the kind of student-athlete she is. She’s just so relentless,” said head coach Kathi Bennett. “She’s earned it with all the hard work she’s put in over the last three years on campus in class and with the team.”

Selection to the Academic All-MAC Team, which is voted on by the league’s Faculty Athletic Representative, requires that the student-athlete achieve a minimum cumulative 3.20 GPA and have participated in at least 50 percent of the contests for that sport. First-year students and junior college transfers in their first year of residence are not eligible for the award.

On the hard court, Corral was the Huskies leading scorer last season with a clip of 13.6 points per game, reaching double-figures 21 times in 30 games. She trumped that by scoring 20-or-more points in six games, including a season-high 30 points versus Eastern Michigan on January 12.

Amanda Corral

Amanda Corral

She also averaged 4.1 rebounds and 2.3 assists per game, while shooting an impressive .424 from the field as she sank 156-of-368 shots taken.

Corral also became the 27th Huskie in school history this season to score 1,000 points in her NIU career, breaking the barrier Feb. 22 versus Central Michigan with a 23-point effort versus the Chippewas.

On Jan. 30, Corral was selected CoSIDA’s Academic All-District team becoming the first Huskie since Doreen Zierer in 1982 to earn the honor. Corral was only one of two players from the MAC, along side Academic All-American Rachel Tecca of Akron, to be named to the elite academic team.

For more information on NIU women’s basketball and Huskie athletics, visit www.niuhuskies.com.