Volleyball Academic All-District Teams

LEWISBURG, Pa. - Shannon Pitsch (Oak Brook, Ill./Fenwick), senior co-captain of the Bucknell volleyball team, was selected to the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District II Team by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) on Thursday. The honor marks Pitsch's second of her career, as she was named to the All-District Second Team in 2007.

Pitsch has made a name for herself in the Bucknell record books. Against La Salle on Sept. 20, the setter moved into first place for career assists. She currently has 3,430 as a Bison. Since then, she also has become one of the top servers in Bucknell history, tallying 132 aces in nearly four years.

Pitsch has started each of the Bison's 26 matches in 2008 and leads the squad with 599 assists (6.89/set). She also places among the team's top three players in digs (110) and service aces (22). For her play throughout the season, Pitsch has been honored with the Damon's Bison Athlete of the Week on Sept. 22, as well as being selected to the Villanova Invitational All-Tournament Team in September.

As a sophomore, Pitsch broke the single-season assists record with 1,199. In that season, she set her career high against Navy with 59 assists and was later named to the 2006 Patriot League All-Tournament Team. She again surpassed the 1,000-assist mark her junior year, leading Bucknell in the category for the second consecutive season.

Off the court, the English and history major has achieved a cumulative grade-point average of 3.73, including a perfect 4.0 in the spring of 2008. She is a three-time Patriot League Academic Honor Roll member whose name can consistently be found on the Dean's List. Pitsch also has been active in the Bucknell and Lewisburg communities through her involvement with the Pi Alpha Theta Honors Society, as a sports reporter for the university's student newspaper, the Bucknellian, with the Graue Hill Historical Society and as a member of the Bucknell Student Government Housing Task Force. Pitsch's educational background was put to use in her internship with Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia. She shared her account of her 2008 summer internship with the food editor in the "There Is No Off-Season for the Student-Athlete" series on BucknellBison.com.

In order to be considered for Academic All-America honors, a candidate must be at least a sophomore with a minimum 3.30 cumulative GPA and be a starter or significant reserve on his/her team. Bucknell ranks fifth among all Division I institutions with 116 national Academic All-Americans.

The Bucknell volleyball program has now had 19 All-District honorees since 1984.

The Bison, which are ranked fourth in the Patriot League and battling for one of the two remaining spots in the league's tournament, head into the final stretch of the regular season this weekend as they take on Holy Cross and Army. The showdown with the Crusaders is slated for 7 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 7, followed by the contest with the Black Knights at 5 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 8. Both matches will be played out in Davis Gym, and live stats will be available on BucknellBison.com.