Powell Honored with ESPN The Magazine Academic All-American Status

Senior forward Shay Powell has been named to the 2009 ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America Women's Soccer Team, earning Second-Team accolades after a prolific career with the Huskers both on and off and field.

A native of Dallas, Texas, Powell is one of only 32 women's college soccer players to receive a spot on Academic All-America team, which is selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA). To be eligible, a student-athlete must be a varsity starter or key reserve, maintain a cumulative grade point average of 3.30 and be nominated by the school's sports information directors and coaches.

Powell has been a standout student-athlete at Nebraska since she joined the Husker soccer program in the fall of 2006. Since then, Powell has been named to the First-Team Academic All-Big 12 team all three years she has been eligible (2007, 2008, 2009) and earned a spot on the Big 12 Commissioner's Honor Roll all six semesters (Spring: 2007, 2008, 2009; Fall: 2006, 2007, 2008). She holds an impressive 3.92 grade-point average as a pre-law psychology major and plans to graduate in May 2010

For head coach John Walker, Powell led the Huskers in scoring as a sophomore and junior, compiling 12 goals and six assists in 2007 and 2008. She had four goals and five assists as a senior in 2009 and started 17 games, missing only a week of action in mid-September due to injury. Through her career, Powell played in 72 games, earning a start 53 times, while finishing with 17 goals and 11 assists (45 points).

Powell is part of Nebraska's long-standing tradition of academic excellence, as the Huskers boast more Academic All-Americans than any school in the country. Entering the 2009-10 school year, Nebraska had a nation-leading 269 CoSIDA Academic All-Americans across all sports.