McLean, Swartz Earn Academic All-America Honors

East Lansing, Mich. -- Michigan State senior Samantha McLean (Grand Rapids, Mich.) and redshirt junior Lauren Swartz (Pittsburgh, Pa.) have both been named to the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) Academic All-America Team, as announced on Monday.

Perhaps the most competitive single-sport team in the CoSIDA Academic All-America program, McLean and Swartz were among the 21 athletes chosen from around the country. Of the 21, all are juniors, seniors, or graduate students, and just three of the selections came from the Big Ten Conference. A total of 27 of the 79 total All-District selections from Division I boasted a perfect 4.0 grade-point average.

McLean becomes just the second two-time Academic All-America pick in program history, joining All-American Dana Cooke, who was a third-team pick in 1995 and earned a spot on the first team in 1996. McLean was also a third-team selection as a junior before earning a spot on the first team this year. Swartz is MSU's seventh all-time Academic All-America honoree, earning third team kudos.

Both standouts played significant roles for the 2019 Spartans and both boast perfect 4.0 grade-point averages in their undergraduate work. They are both two-time Big Ten Distinguished Scholars and Academic All-Big Ten selections.

McLean earned Third Team Academic All-America honors in 2018 as a Kinesiology/ Pre-Med major. In addition to maintaining a perfect 4.0 grade-point average, she served as the Spartan team captain and was MSU's honoree for the Big Ten Sportsmanship Award. She served as MSU's primary DS, and averaged 1.62 digs per set while adding 20 service aces, good for second on the team and one of six players with double-digit aces. McLean helped the Spartans maintain a .183 opponent hitting percentage, which was the fourth-lowest in the Big Ten.

Swartz, a redshirt junior athletically, is pursuing her master's degree in marketing research after she graduated with her undergraduate degree in Economics in just six semesters with a perfect 4.0 GPA in May 2019. Swartz enjoyed a healthy season after missing significant time in 2018 - she played in 26 matches (93 sets), and averaged 0.75 blocks, 1.40 kills, and 0.61 digs per frame, hitting .182 on the year.

McLean and Swartz are the sixth and seventh players in program history to earn Academic All-America honors, following Dana Cooke (1995, 1996), Val Sterk (1996), Jenilee Rathje, (2011), Kristen Kelsay (2013), Rachel Minarick (2017). Cooke, Minarick, and now McLean are the three players to earn First Team Academic All-America distinction, an award which carries an additional honor of a portrait hanging in the front lobby of Michigan State's Clara Bell Smith Student Athlete Academic Center.

2019 Academic All-America Team as Selected
by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA)

FIRST TEAM
Allie Barber, Marquette University (Sr., 3.98, Biomedical Sciences)
Madison Green, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi (Sr., 4.00, Biology)
Sydney Hilley, University of Wisconsin (Jr., 3.79,Genetics & Genomics)
Meghan McClure, Stanford University (Jr., 4.00, Science, Technology & Society)
Samantha McLean Michigan State University (Sr., 4.00, Pre-Medicine / Kinesiology)
Leah Meyer, University of Kentucky (Gr., 4.00, MBA)
Paige Miles, U.S. Naval Academy (Sr., 4.00, Quantitative Economics)

SECOND TEAM
Camryn Allen, Towson University (Jr., 4.00, Biology)
Whitney Brown, Robert Morris University (Jr., 4.00, Biology)
Audriana Fitzmorris, Stanford University (Sr., 3.51, Human Biology)
Paulina Hougaard-Jensen, Colorado State University (Sr., 3.96, Business Administration)
Laura Masciullo, Hofstra University (Sr,. 3.97, Mathematical Business Economics)
Jordan Thompson, University of Cincinnati (Gr., 3.59 /3.67, Criminal Justice)
Micaya White, University of Texas (Sr,. 3.57, Psychology)

THIRD TEAM
Brynn Carlson, Kansas State University (Gr., 4.00, Nutrition, Dietectics & Sensory Sciences)
Morgan Hash, Georgia State University (Sr,. 4.00 ,Public Health)
Amelia Johnson, Liberty University (Gr., 4.00, Interdisciplinary Studies (UG) / Public Health (G))
Katie Oleksak, Colorado State University (Sr., 3.79, Health & Exercise Science)
Abby Stomp, Northern Arizona University (Sr., 4.00, Biology)
Lauren Swartz, Michigan State University (Gr., 4.00, Economics (UG) / Marketing Research (G))
Brittany Witt, Creighton University (Sr., 3.86, Exercise Science)

Players Mentioned

Samantha McLean

Samantha McLean

Rachel Minarick

Lauren Swartz

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