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Liz Shimek Named Academic All-American

EAST LANSING, Mich. -- Michigan State senior forward Liz Shimek (Empire, Mich.) has earned ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America First-Team honors as selected by the College Sports Information Directors of American (CoSIDA). Shimek is only the second player in program history to earn first-team honors. A three-time Academic All-District honoree, Shimek boasts a 3.72 GPA in General Management and will graduate in May.

Shimek, a third-team Academic All-American last season, joins Deb Traxinger as the only women's basketball players at MSU to be named first-team Academic All-Americans. Traxinger garnered third-team honors in 1980 and second-team honors in 1981 before being named to the first team in 1982.

Shimek closed the regular season fourth in the Big Ten in scoring with 17.2 ppg and tied for first in rebounding with 8.4 rpg. She led the conference in offensive rebounds (3.5 pg) and was fifth in field-goal percentage at 53.2 percent. Her outstanding senior season has placed her on many national player of the year watch lists, including the Wooden Award, the Naismith Award and the Wade Trophy.

The All-America candidate earned Big Ten Player of the Week accolades four times this season, a school record, and was named the WBCA National Co-Player of the Month in December after averaging 22.9 points and 9.1 rebounds.

The Michigan State women's basketball team is the No. 4 seed in this week's Big Ten Tournament and will play fifth-seeded Iowa in the quarterfinals Friday, March 3. Tipoff will be 25 minutes after the 12 p.m. ET game.

CoSIDA ACADEMIC ALL-AMERICA FIRST TEAM - WOMEN'S BASKETBALL

Player, School, Class, Hometown, GPA, Major

Lindsay Shearer Kent State Sr. Minerva, Ohio 3.95 Business

Liz Shimek Michigan State Sr. Empire, Mich. 3.72 General Management

Melanie Boeglin Indiana State Sr. Terre Haute, Ind. 3.88 Marketing

Megan Duffy Notre Dame Sr. Dayton, Ohio 3.56 Psychology/Computer Applications

Shanna Zolman Tennessee Sr. Syracuse, Ind. 3.56 Journalism & Electronic Media

Courtesy of MSU

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