July 12, 2007

MEMPHIS, Tenn - Fifteen student-athletes posted perfect 4.0s to lead the Spring 2007 Tiger Academic 30 honorees as announced by Dr. Joe Luckey, Director of the Athletic Academic Services department, Thursday.

"Our staff is very excited about this special group," Luckey said. "The bar has been raised every semester since we started this award five years ago. Once the names were produced for the top team GPA's, only six additional student-athletes were selected to make up the Tiger Academic 30 for Spring 2007. Over half of the student-athletes on this list earned a perfect 4.0 GPA. We would like to make special mention of the volleyball program as they had eight athletes represented on the Tiger Academic 30 with seven of them earning a 4.0 GPA."

The Tiger Academic 30 is made up of the top student-athlete GPA in each sport, then the next highest-ranking GPAs from all sports until a total of 30 student-athletes are on the list.

Volleyball won the women's team award, powered by eight members on the Tiger Academic 30, including seven perfect 4.0s during the spring semester. Men's tennis led all the men's athletic programs with three perfect 4.0 students and with a total of four student-athletes on the list. The complete list is below:

Tiger Academic 30
Mark Jobe, Baseball
Chance McGrady, Men's Basketball
Megan Gooch, Women's Basketball
Toby Rayner, Men's Cross Country/Track
Sivan Aballi, Women's Cross Country/Track
Patrick Byrne, Football
Brandon Patterson, Football
Brad Benjamin, Men's Golf
Kathryn O'Rourke, Women's Golf *
Andrew Hahn, Rifle
Adam Montgomery, Men's Soccer *
Brittany Baldwin, Women's Soccer *
Kate Murphy, Women's Soccer *
Melissa Nance, Softball/Volleyball *
Benedikt Fischer, Men's Tennis *
Amrit Narasimhan, Men's Tennis *
Garrison Pilant, Men's Tennis *
Christina Wieser, Women's Tennis *
Sarah Chambers, Volleyball *
Christen Clayton, Volleyball *
Gresh Gorman, Volleyball *
Ashley Liford, Volleyball *
Colette Ramirez, Volleyball *
Lauren Thompson, Volleyball *
Victoria Dalton, Women's Soccer
Christine Bach, Volleyball
Jenna Kubesch, Softball
Neil Schenk, Baseball
Spencer Heflin, Men's Tennis
Emily Malinowski, Women's Cross Country/Track

* 4.0 GPA for the spring of 2007