OVERLAND PARK, Kan. - UNC Greensboro senior defender Lauren Lopez has been named one of the 30 national candidates for the Lowe's Senior CLASS Award. The award celebrates excellence in the classroom, character, community and competition.
An acronym for Celebrating Loyalty and Achievement for Staying in School, the Lowe's Senior CLASS Award is given in football, men's and women's soccer, men's ice hockey, men's lacrosse, baseball, softball and men's and women's basketball.
Lopez, a four-year starter for the Spartans, was a Preseason All-Southern Conference selection this season and picked up an assist in UNCG's season-opener against Wake Forest on Sunday.
As a junior in 2008, she was named to the All-SoCon First Team, the SoCon All-Tournament Team and the All-Southeast Region Third Team by Soccer Buzz. In the classroom, the Concord, N.C., native earned a spot on the Academic All-Southern Conference team and the NSCAA/adidas Scholar All-South Region Third Team and boasts a 3.94 cumulative grade point average.
Lopez, a team captain, was a second-team all-conference pick in 2007.
In the community, she participated in UNCG's Relay for Life and volunteered with the women's soccer team at the Greensboro Youth Soccer Association's First Timers Clinic, coaching and working with children ages 4-6. She has also been involved with the Fox 8 Gift for Kids campaign, in which gifts for needy children are collected at UNCG sporting events and UNCG student-athletes donate their time at the Fox 8 Gifts for Kids warehouse assisting in the distribution of the gifts collected. Lopez is also a member of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. In high school, she worked with the Special Olympics.
A national media committee will narrow the list of 30 candidates to 10 finalists, who will be announced at the end of September. Those 10 names will go on the official ballot for a nationwide vote among fans, coaches and media. Voting will take place Oct. 5-Nov. 13. The winner will be announced during the NCAA Division I Women's College Cup, Dec. 4-6.
Lopez is the lone Southern Conference student-athlete on the list, and is one of just four candidates from North Carolina schools, joining Charlotte's Hailey Beam, North Carolina's Kristi Eveland and Duke's KayAnne Gummersall.
Coincidentally, Lopez and the Spartans (0-1) will face both Duke and North Carolina at the Carolina Nike Classic this weekend, taking on the Blue Devils at 5 p.m. Friday and the defending national champion Tar Heels at 3 p.m. Sunday.
For more information on the Lowe's Senior CLASS Award, visit seniorclassaward.com.
- UNCG -