Nov. 26, 2013

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Junior midfielder Stuart Pope was named to the third team of the 2013 National Soccer Coaches Association of America and CoSIA’s Capital One Academic All-American list, it was announced on Tuesday afternoon by the NSCAA office.

Pope is currently in her third year of undergraduate studies at Kentucky and holds a 3.95 GPA while studying equine science.

Pope becomes just the third UK women’s soccer player to be named an NSCAA/CoSIDA Academic All-American and the first in seven years, joining Allison Peppers (1999) and Anne Oguedele (2006) as the only other recipients.

The Fayetteville, Ga., native had a breakout season, playing in every game that she was healthy for in 2013, scoring a career-high 10 goals, assisting on seven goals and scored an SEC-high tying five game-winning goals. Pope launched 39 shots, with 20 of them on goal, for a team-high .256 SOG percentage.

In her 18 games on the pitch, Pope played over 1,490 minutes and was awarded numerous awards throughout the season, including CollegeSportsMadness.com and Southeastern Conference Player of the Week honors on Sept. 9 and Second Team All-SEC in 2013, for her first-career SEC honor. 

The junior scored in nine of her last 15 matches before injuring her knee in the LSU match, ending her season early. 

Pope was one of five SEC players to receive the award, joining Caroline Brown (UT, 2nd team), Rafaelle Souza (Ole Miss, 2nd team), Danielle Au (SC, 3rd team) and Kendall Khanna (UA, 3rd team). 

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