CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Eleven softball student-athletes, four of which were all-conference selections in 2011, have been named to the America East Softball All-Academic team, the league office announced today. These student athletes, who excel both academically as well as athletically, represent the best of the America East Conference.

First-team all-conference second baseman Emily Roesch (Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.) from Boston University leads the four all-league honorees who also earned all-academic recognition. She is joined on the all-academic squad by Albany’s Diane MacDowell (Middletown, N.Y.), Binghamton’s Jessica Phillips (Syracuse, N.Y.) and Stony Brook’s Lauren Maloney (Las Vegas, Nev.), all second-team selections.

Binghamton’s Meghan Tucker (Kirkwood, N.Y.) and Hartford’s Kate Wacyk (Sellersville, N.Y.) are repeat selections from a year ago. Binghamton’s Jessica Bump (Windsor, N.Y.) and Chelsea Horne (Williamsville, N.Y.), Hartford’s Amber Andrews (Greenwood, Del.), Maine’s Ashley Kelley (Hermon, Maine) and Stony Brook’s Bernadette Tenuto (Audubon, N.J.) round out the team.

The All-Academic squads are a product of the June 2005 Athletics Directors meeting where faculty representatives and athletics directors from each of the conference’s nine member institutions decided to honor the league’s top student-athletes, who excel equally in the classroom as they do on the playing field.

For the fourth straight year, America East has chosen the All-Academic teams using CoSIDA’s Academic All-America program as a model. Student-athletes worthy of consideration are nominated by member sports information directors and voted on by a committee of SIDs, academic advisers and faculty representatives from all nine member institutions.

All-Academic squads for team sports are based on the number of athletes that participate in a contest at one time (e.g., 10 in the lineup for softball) but can be more if there is a tie in voting. To be nominated for the distinction, student-athletes must be a starter or important reserve for their team. In softball, position players must participate in at least 50 percent of their team’s games while pitchers must make at least 10 appearances on the mound. In the classroom, student-athletes must have a 3.30 GPA and have completed at least one calendar year at their institution. Freshmen are not eligible for consideration.