Dec. 2, 2011

MILWAUKEE - Seniors Natalie Kulla and Kerry McBride of the three-time BIG EAST American Division champion Marquette University women's soccer team were honored for their hard work on the field and inside the classroom and named to the Capital One Academic All-America Second Team.

Kulla and McBride are the first-student athletes in program history to earn Capital One Academic All-America Second Team honors.

With a 3.56 cumulative grade point average in civil engineering, Kulla earns academic all-America honors for the first time of her decorated career at Marquette. Kulla finished her career as Marquette's all-time shutouts leader (43), and she also holds the single season mark with 16 set in 2009. She stands second on MU's wins (58), goals against average (0.74) and minutes (7835:04) lists, and fourth with 220 saves. Her 18 wins in 2011 are second in program history. Following the end of the of the regular season, Kulla was lauded as the BIG EAST Goalkeeper of the Year and earned All-BIG EAST First Team honors for the second straight season.

Kulla will graduate later this month and is set to return to St. Louis, Mo., where she has accepted a position with Boeing as a facilities plant engineer working in the defense, space and security division. She looks to pursue a graduate degree in sustainability at Saint Louis University beginning in the summer of 2012.

Kerry McBride

McBride, also a civil engineering major with a 3.52 GPA, has anchored Marquette's back line as its sweeper this season. The MAC Hermann Award candidate has helped lead one of the league's best defenses to allow just seven goals in 11 conference games, and earned repeat BIG EAST Defensive Player of the Year and All-BIG EAST First Team honors for her efforts. McBride played an integral role in MU's 13 shutouts in 2011 and helped to limit the opposition to just 2.7 shots on goal per game, and just 3.0 shots on goal in BIG EAST play.

McBride was honored with NSCAA Second Team Scholar All-America accolades following the 2010 season and this is her first Capital One Academic All-America honor as selected by CoSIDA.

McBride will graduate in May of 2012.

Marquette Golden Eagles Women's Soccer

Printer-friendly format	Email this article