Franklin Pierce Named
to WBCA Academic Top 25
22^nd-ranked Ravens post 3.399 team GPA
in 2007-08 with nine members earning
Dean’s List status for spring semester

RINDGE, N.H. (July 16, 2008) – The Franklin Pierce University women’s basketball team is ranked in the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) Division II Academic Top 25 for the first time in program history it was announced this week.

           Franklin Pierce, which earned a 3.399 team grade point average for the 2007-08 academic year, is ranked 22^nd in the Academic Top 25. National runners-up University of South Dakota are ranked first with a 3.649 team GPA. Franklin Pierce and South Dakota are the only teams that appeared in the 2008 Division II Women’s Elite 8 in Kearney, Neb., ranked in the Academic Top 25 and the Ravens are the only representative from the Northeast Region.          

“This group demonstrated a willingness to stay focused both on the court and in the classroom,” said Franklin Pierce head coach Mark Swasey. “Being the only team in Division II from New England to appear in the Academic Top 25 is a major accomplishment and reflects positively, with national recognition, on the program and more importantly Franklin Pierce University as a whole.”

           Nine members of the Franklin Pierce women’s basketball team earned Dean’s List honors for the Spring 2008 semester after seven earned that status during the Fall 2007 semester. Freshman guard Cynthia Gaudet (Coventry, R.I./LaSalle Academy) led the way for the Ravens with a perfect 4.0 GPA in the spring semester and finished her first year at the University with a 3.97 cumulative GPA. Sophomore All-American Johannah Leedham (Ellesmere Port, England/Cheshire Academy (Conn.)), the State Farm/WBCA Division II Player of the Year, earned a 3.54 GPA in the spring to boost her cumulative GPA to 3.35 over two years.

           Franklin Pierce (27-6, 18-4 NE-10), ranked sixth in the final USA Today/ESPN/WBCA Division II poll, set a program record for wins in 2007-08 and captured its first NCAA Division II Northeast Region Championship in program history to reach the Elite 8 in Kearney, Neb. The Ravens made their sixth NCAA Tournament appearance, and first since 1999, last winter.

 Women’s Basketball Dean’s List – Spring 2008 Semester
Tori Ahrens (East Greenwich, R.I./East Greenwich), Fr. – 3.35 GPA
Alexis Auffray (Cornwall, N.Y./Cornwall Central), So. – 3.79
Cynthia Gaudet (Coventry, R.I./LaSalle Academy, Fr. – 4.00
Rachel Kimball (Schenectady, N.Y./Monohasen), So. – 3.81
Jennifer Leedham (Ellesmere Port, England/Cheshire Academy (Conn.)), Jr. – 3.74
Johannah Leedham (Ellesmere Port, England/Cheshire Academy (Conn.)), So. – 3.54
Josie Lidke (Chaska, Minn./Chaska), Sr. – 3.47
Toby Martin (Wayne, Maine/Maranacook), Jr. – 3.47
Vanessa Power (Mildura, Australia), Jr. – 3.47