DeKALB, Ill. – Four members of the Northern Illinois University women's golf team have been named All-American Scholars by the Women's Golf Coaches Association (WGCA) as the organization released its 2017-18 list Tuesday.
 
To qualify for All-American Scholar status, student-athletes must have a cumulative grade point average of 3.50 and must have competed in 50 percent of the team's regularly scheduled competitive rounds during the year.
 
NIU juniors Kelly Anderson (Wheaton, Ill./Wheaton-Warrenville South HS) and Brielle Ward (Frisco, Texas/Wakeland HS) received All-America Scholar recognition for the third consecutive year in 2017-18, while sophomore Isabella Samudio (Bogota, Colombia/Colegio Helvetia de Bogota) was honored for the second time.  Freshman Lauren Ingle (Rochester Hills, Mich./Rochester Hills-Stoney Creek) picked up the award for the first time. 
 
Anderson, who ranked second on the team with a scoring average of 76.3 last season, carries a 3.989 GPA in communicative disorders. She led the Huskies to a third-place finish at the MAC Championships in 2018. Ward's current career scoring average of 76.03 in 86 career rounds ranks first all-time at NIU. The two-time All-MAC golfer is a double major in philosophy and psychology with a 3.73 GPA. Samudio broke the NIU school record in 2018 with a career-low round of 67 and owns a 3.90 GPA in leadership and management, while Ingle posted a 3.87 GPA in her first season as a Huskie and played in 10 tournaments, compiling a 77.6 scoring average. She intends to major in nursing.

"I'm very happy for these four to see them honored as All-American Scholars," said head coach Kim Kester.  "It shows the hard work that they put in off the course every day to achieve at this high level. Congratulations to each of them on this honor."
 
As a team, the 2017-18 Huskies led all NIU programs in cumulative GPA, finishing the spring semester with a cumulative mark of 3.723
 
NIU placed at least four golfers on the WGCA All-American Scholar list for the fifth time in the last seven seasons dating back to 2012 and has had 61 All-America Scholars all-time dating back to 1987. 

-- NIU --