Oct. 6, 2009

Army senior midfielder Elizabeth Betterbed is one of 10 finalists for the Lowe's Senior CLASS Award in the women's soccer division, announced today. A nationwide voting process begins immediately and fans can vote online beginning today and ending November 13 at www.seniorclassaward.com.

To be eligible for the award, a student-athlete must be classified as an NCAA Division I senior and have notable achievements in four areas of excellence - classroom, character, community and competition.

An acronym for Celebrating Loyalty and Achievement for Staying in School^TM, the Lowe's Senior CLASS Award focuses on the total student-athlete and encourages students to use their platform in athletics to make a positive impact as leaders in their communities. The finalists were chosen by a media committee from the list of 30 candidates announced in August

Betterbed is the lone Patriot League representative and one of two midfielders on the ballot. This marks the third year for the award and second straight year that an Army soccer player has been a finalist with goalkeeper A.J. Glubzinski of the men's soccer team making the cut in 2008.

A Mechanical Engineering major who owns a 4.235 cumulative grade point average, Betterbed has ranked No. 1 in her class since her freshman year. The Fox Island, Wash., native holds the second highest rank in the Corps of Cadets, which numbers 4,400, as the Deputy Brigade Commander. She has also been a Team Leader, First Sergeant for the Brigade Headquarters and Headquarters Company, and the Executive Officer for the Summer Garrison Regiment.

An exceptional athlete, Betterbed has been a starter on the pitch since her freshman year. Last year she was named a Patriot League all-star as a defender and was one of four Black Knights named to the all-tournament team after leading Army to the conference title and first NCAA bid in school history. As a defender last year, she was instrumental making the Black Knights one of the toughest teams to score on as Army set a school mark of six consecutive league shutouts in compiling 12 shutouts, one shy of the single-season record.

Army's go-to-player as a midfielder this season, Betterbed is Army's scoring leader with six points (two goals, two assists) along with a pair of game winners. Her header delivered the game winner in a 2-1 edging of Fairfield, along with tallying the lone goal in a 1-0 shutout of Hartford. She also recorded a pair of assists in a  3-0 blanking of New Jersey Institute of Technology in helping the Black Knights off to a 5-5-2 overall showing.

In the community, Betterbed has been a Big Sister to a local elementary school student in nearby Highland Falls for the past three years. While spending her spring semester abroad studying Spanish at Monterrey Tecnologico, Betterbed volunteered at Trompo Magico Children's Museum in Guadalajara, Mexico. In July of 2008 she was a counselor at a Muscular Dystrophy Association camp in Gig Harbor, Wash., after spending June as an English teacher at Uijeongbu Community Center in South Korea. Since 2007, she has been a Black and Gold Leadership Forum "Core" member. She has also been active in several of the soccer team's service projects, including Special Olympics, Toys for Tots fundraiser and community clinics.

Among her myriad list of honors are the Superintendent's Award for Excellence, Meritorious Winner, Mathematical Contest in Modeling, Phi Kappa Phi Scholastic Achievement Award and Editor, Undergraduate Journal of Social Sciences.

"Liz is an excellent candidate for the Lowe's Senior CLASS Award," commented Army head coach Stefanie Golan. "She has done extremely well with all aspects of her life at West Point and will continue to do great things in the future. Liz has already developed into a tremendous leader of character, and I am very much looking forward to watching where her life takes her beyond West Point."

The rest of the finalists are  Kelsey Davis, University of Portland; Kristi Eveland, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; Theresa Ferraina, Loyola University Maryland; Lauren Lopez, University of North Carolina, Greensboro; Blakely Mattern, University of South Carolina; Lizzy Nichols, Harvard University; Kelley O'Hara, Stanford University; Emily Peterson, Texas A&M University; and Myra Sack, Dartmouth College.

Fan balloting will be coupled with votes from coaches and media to determine the recipient of the award. Lowe's, an official Corporate Partner of the NCAA, will announced the Senior CLASS Award winners during the 2009 NCAA Men's and Women's College Cup championships in early December.