Pinto And Jones Earn Academic All-America Honors

North Carolina's Brianna Pinto and Rachel Jones have earned NCAA Division I women's soccer Academic All-America honors, as announced Monday by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA). The honor recognizes outstanding academic and athlete performance over the past year.

Pinto was named to the Academic All-America second team and Jones to the third team. UNC is one five schools nationally and the only one in the Atlantic Coast Conference with multiple honorees.

Both players were starters for the 2020-21 Carolina squad that finished the extended season 18-2 and reached the College Cup.

Pinto, a midfielder from Durham, N.C., was one of three finalists for the MAC Hermann Trophy as national player of the year. A two-time All-America first team selection, she earned All-ACC honors for the third year in a row and finished the 2020-21 season tied for third in the nation in points and goals. Pinto is a business administration major and recipient of merit scholarship in the Kenan-Flagler Business School. The third overall pick in the 2021 NWSL Draft, she now plays for Gotham FC.

Jones, a senior forward from Lawrenceville, Ga., earned third-team All-America honors as well as first-team All-ACC and All-Region recognition. She ranked second on the team in goals (6), assists (6) and points (18) in 2020-21. Outside of soccer, she serves as president of UNC's Student-Athlete Advisory Council and also serves on the conference SAAC. She was a 2021 recipient of UNC's Top 10 Scholar-Athlete Award, which recognizes the top cumulative grade point averages among graduating student-athletes. After completing her degree in public policy in May 2021, Jones plans to begin her studies at the UNC School of Law while playing her final season of eligibility for Carolina this fall.

Eleven of the 33 members of the Academic All-America® Division I women's soccer teams sport a perfect 4.0 GPA in either undergrad or graduate school. The 11 members of the first team have an average GPA of 3.96, with the complete 33-member women's team averaging a 3.88 GPA.

To see the full Academic All-America teams, click here.

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University of North Carolina Athletics

Players Mentioned

Rachel Jones

Brianna Pinto

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