Jul. 17—The University of Maine women’s basketball team has had a lot of success on the court with six consecutive appearances in America East Tournament championship games and two titles. Over the past four seasons, their record against America East teams, including the regular season and tournament has been 63-11.
But the Black Bears’ performance in the classroom has been even more impressive capped by this season’s 3.90 grade-point average, which was best among NCAA Division I, II and III women’s basketball programs as well as NAIA schools and two-year colleges.
UMaine finished atop the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association’s Academic Top 25 honor roll.
This is the 26th year of the WBCA’s Academic Top 25 honor roll and UMaine has been among the top 25 four times over the past seven years. It was ranked No. 17 a year ago.
What makes UMaine’s accomplishment even more impressive is the fact the Black Bears had players from seven different countries on its roster: the United States, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Luxembourg, Spain and Israel.
Fifth-year forward Fanny Wadling from Sweden and senior guard Kelly Fogarty from Massachusetts led the way with perfect 4.0 grade-point averages. Wadling was named the Outstanding Graduating International Student in the Maine Business School and fifth-year Spanish guard Blanca Millan earned the same honor in the College of Education and Human Development, an accolade Wadling had earned a year ago.
The Black Bears compiled their 3.90 GPA while playing 13 of their 20 games on the road this season and while dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic.
“This is amazing. I am so proud of them,” said UMaine head coach Amy Vachon who added that it is a credit to her players and her coaching staff.
“The players put in the work. They are dedicated to academics as well as basketball,” Vachon said. “We recruit kids who are hard workers and who consider academics important.”
UMaine went 17-3 this season and lost to Stony Brook in the championship game.