UTSA senior named to ESPN First Team in softball

By Kyle Stephens
UTSA Sports Information Director

(May 15, 2007)--UTSA senior Jessica Rogers has been named to the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District VI First Team for the third straight year, the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) announced May 10. The South Grand Prairie High product now is eligible for her second Academic All-America honor with voting by a national panel beginning this week.

Rogers, a first-team ESPN The Magazine Academic All-American in 2005, was one of 12 student-athletes from the Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas selected to the squad and one of two from the Southland Conference, joining Brooke Lockhart of Southeastern Louisiana.

Rogers graduated in December with a bachelor's degree in kinesiology and boasts a 3.77 cumulative grade point average. An eight-time UTSA Dean's List honoree, she completed her first semester of graduate school last week.

A four-year starter at third base, Rogers recently earned first-team All-SLC honors for the fourth consecutive season -- one of only 11 players in SLC history to accomplish that feat -- and was named to the All-SLC Tournament team for the second time last weekend.

The 2005 SLC Student-Athlete, Player and Hitter of the Year, she demolished three league career records this season -- home runs (69), runs batted in (192) and total bases (525) -- and also set school standards for runs (159), hits (281), extra-base hits (104) and at-bats (732). Rogers finished this season with a .404 batting average (74-for-183), nine doubles, 18 home runs, 53 RBIs, a .749 slugging percentage, 11 walks, a .442 on-base percentage and two sacrifice flies.

In order to be eligible for academic all-district honors, a student-athlete must maintain a cumulative G.P.A. of at least 3.20 on a 4.00 scale and participate in at least 50 percent of her team's games. Freshmen and first-year transfers are not eligible.