SAGE'S SOFTBALL PLAYERS HONORED BY NFCA FOR ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE 

Troy, NY----Members of The Sage Colleges softball team were recognized by the National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) girls got game/NFCA All-America Scholar-Athlete Team. Sage placed five student-athletes on the 2009 team after they excelled in the classroom, achieving a 3.5 of higher grade-point-average.

Headlining the team for the Gators were 2009 class valedictorian, senior Rebecca Gregory (Hudson, NY/Hudson), junior co-captain Kellie Jones (Troy, NY/Troy), sophomore co-captain Allison Bishop (Troy NY/Lansingburgh), sophomore Jaime Handford (Berlin, NY/Berlin), and freshman Ashley Eberle (Delmar, NY/Bethlehem Central).

In addition to earning recognition from the NFCA, each earned a spot on the 2009 Skyline Conference Scholar-Athlete Team last spring.

Gregory, who returns this season as a graduate student, majored in mathematics at Sage as an undergraduate. She earned acclaim for her excellence in the classroom as a Dean's List student and is also a former softball representative to Sage's Student Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC).

Bishop, who is a member of Sage's Student Athlete Advisory Committee, is a business and communications major at Sage. She batted .291 a year ago with 13 extra-base hits and started all 34 games for the Gators.  Eberle is a math education major at Sage and batted .250 last spring with 26 starts. Jones, who is a two-sport student-athlete for the Gators where she also serves as a tri-captain on Sage's 2009 women's volleyball team. She is majoring in physical therapy and also honored by the Skyline Conference with a spot on the 2009 Softball All-Star Second Team after batting .410 with a .695 slugging percentage with 23 RBI.

Handford is a pre-med major at Sage and batted .233 last year with 17 appearances and 16 starts in the Gators' outfield.