PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Commissioner Mike Aresco has announced that Tulane guard Leslie Vorpahl has been chosen as the 2016-17 American Athletic Conference Women’s Basketball Scholar-Athlete of the Year. The selection was made by the conference’s Academic Affairs Committee and is presented on the basis of academic credentials and athletic performance.
Vorpahl, a senior from San Antonio, Texas, will receive a $2,000 scholarship, which may be applied to graduate or professional studies.
Vorpahl is the second player in Tulane history to score 1,000 points and dish off 500 assists. She has started all 29 games for the Green Wave this season and averaged a career-best 11.8 ppg. and 6.1 apg. Tulane finished the regular season with a 16-13 record and 7-9 mark in league play to earn the No. 5 seed in the upcoming conference championship. Vorpahl has appeared in 125 career outings and made 83 career starts while scoring 1,210 career points and dishing off 533 career assists. The 28
th player in Tulane history to score 1,000 career points, she stands 14th on the school’s career scoring list and ranks third all-time in assists.
She has scored in double figures in 17 outings during the 2016-17 campaign and 55 times during her career. Vorpahl is third in The American in assists (6.1) and ranks in the top 15 in six different categories. Earlier this season, she set the school’s single-game assist record with 15 versus Grambling on Nov. 12, 2016 and registered her lone double-double of the season with 24 points and 11 assists against Maine on Dec. 28, 2016.
A three-time all-conference selection and a member of The American’s All-Academic Team, Vorpahl holds a 3.756 grade-point average as a business management and marketing major, while earning Dean’s List recognition on seven occasions. The senior also received the Sportsmanship Award for women’s basketball this season. The award reflects the ideals of sportsmanship -- ethical behavior, fair play and integrity -- in collegiate basketball.
Vorpahl is also the lone representative from the American Athletic Conference to be selected for the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association’s “So You Want to be a Coach” program. Vorpahl was one of 61 selected nationwide for this year’s class.
The conference also names winners of the league’s Institutional Scholar-Athlete Scholarships, which go to one male and one female student-athlete at each of the conference’s member institutions. The American additionally names Scholar-Athletes of the Year in football and men’s basketball.
The winners of the institutional, football and basketball awards are then eligible for the American Athletic Conference Scholar-Athlete of the Year award, which provides an additional postgraduate scholarship to one male and one female student-athlete.
American Athletic Conference Women’s Basketball Scholar-Athletes of the Year
2013-14 Antonita Slaughter, Louisville
2014-15 Jamie Kaplan, Tulane
2015-16 Courtney Williams, USF
2016-17 Leslie Vorpahl, Tulane