The EIU women’s basketball team registered a 3.442 GPA for the 2006-07 academic year earning a spot on the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association Academic Top 25.

The team GPA was the 10th highest in the country among NCAA Division I teams. Prior to the beginning of last school year, Eastern earned the Ohio Valley Conference Team Academic Achievement Award for women’s basketball after nine of 14 players on the roster earned Commissioner’s Honor Roll distinction.

Additionally, 13 of the 15 players on last year’s roster earned a GPA of 3.0 or higher, with eight student athletes posting higher than 3.7.

Many suspect these high achievements will bring the award to EIU again next month.

Two Panthers, Amanda Maxedon and Meagan Scaggs, earned perfect 4.0 GPAs during their final semester of their undergraduate careers.

For this they will be presented with the OVC Medal of Honor in August.

Meggie Eck, also a senior, posted a 4.0 GPA in the fall semester and ended with a 3.875 GPA.

Cindy Tozer, EIU’s director of academic services said, “They’re an exemplary group of young women.

We’re very proud of them for their academic accomplishments.

With the expanded services at new academic center (which opened in Aug. 2006) we hope to see a number of our programs follow women’s basketball’s lead.

The Panthers were the highest ranked school in Illinois, and were the only OVC team in the Top 25 list.

Southern Illinois ranked 19th, DePaul 25th, and Indiana State was also recognized coming in at 13th.