Alyssa Heintschel and Alex Ruffer Named Academic All-Americans
Full CoSIDA release
AUSTIN, Texas -- Ball State's Alyssa Heintschel and Western Michigan's Alex Ruffer were named to the 2017 Academic All-America® Division I soccer teams as selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA). Heintschel was named to the first team and Ruffer third.
Heintschel, who earned third-team honors last season, became the first player in program history to garner Academic All-America honors twice. She is only the second BSU soccer player ever to earn first-team recognition, joining Skylar Chew in 2012.
The three-year team captain from Oregon, Ohio, capped her career this fall as the winningest keeper in school history with 35 career victories. Her 0.77 goals against average over the past four years also set a school record and ranks third in Mid-American Conference annals.
Heintschel has maintained a perfect 4.0 GPA throughout her college career on Ball State's grueling chemistry, pre-med track. She is a three-time Academic All-District and three-time Academic All-MAC performer.
For her success both on and off the field, Heintschel was named last week to the Senior CLASS Award First Team, recognizing the top five players in the country in terms of demonstrated excellence in four C's: community, classroom, character and competition.
Ruffer, a senior from Lombard, Ill., becomes just the second student-athlete in program history to earn Academic All-American Honors. She joins Anina Cicerone, who was a First Team selection in 2011, in sharing the prestigious honor. Ruffer boasts a perfect 4.0 GPA in finance and was also named CoSIDA First Team Academic All-District.
Ruffer played in and started all 19 games this season, scoring a goal and adding two assists. She helped the Broncos to 10 wins on the season, also helping her class become just the second in program history to experience double-digit wins all four seasons.
