Former MDI Trojan Opal Curless Named to the Academic All-American 2nd Team

Congratulations to former MDI Trojan Opal Curless, a senior at Florida Gulf Coast University who was named to the CoSIDA Academic All-American Second Team  by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA).

According to a Florida Gulf Coast University press release - "This is an outstanding accomplishment, earned by an extremely deserving student-athlete," head coach Jim Blankenship said. "It's such a substantial honor for Opal, who we were extremely excited to add to our program last year. Since joining us, she has been such a hard worker on the field and in the classroom and we are so proud of her for earning this recognition."

In the classroom, Curless has maintained a perfect 4.0 GPA in psychology and has made the President's List every semester since transferring to FGCU in the fall of 2018.

On the field, Curless started all 36 matches that she played in during her time with the Florida Gulf Coast University. This season, she played the full duration in all but 2 games and helped to anchor the Eagles' back line, which allowed just 14 goals during the regular season, the lowest of any team in the conference. She tallied an assist during the team's 2-0 victory over Northeastern (Sept. 8) and helped boost the Eagles to their league-high eight regular season team shutouts.