2016-17 Women's Winter NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship Honorees

INDIANAPOLIS – Senior goaltender Camille Leonard (Oakville, Ontario/Oakville Jr. Hornets) of the Plattsburgh State women's ice hockey team has been named as one of 58 winter student-athletes across all three divisions of the NCAA to earn an NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship for the 2016-17 academic year, as announced by the NCAA. Leonard was the only women's ice hockey student-athlete in 2016-17 to earn an NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship.
 
The NCAA selected 29 male student-athletes and 29 female student-athletes from all winter sports and all divisions, and each of the 58 student-athletes will receive a $7,500 award for postgraduate study.
 
Leonard earned a 3.86 cumulative grade-point average as a social work major during her time at Plattsburgh State, and she finished her career as one of the most accomplished student-athletes in the history of the College. A four-time national champion, she established NCAA Division III career records in both wins (75) and save percentage (.949) while ranking second in the history of Division III in shutouts (30). Leonard also earned two American Hockey Coaches Association (AHCA) All-America honors and three All-Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Women's West accolades during the course of her distinguished career while being named the ECAC Women's West Co-Defensive Player of the Year in 2015-16. She was tabbed to the NCAA and ECAC Women's West Championship All-Tournament teams each of the last three seasons and was selected as the U.S. College Hockey Online (USCHO) First-Team Goalie the past two years. In recognition of her career athletic success, she earned the Plattsburgh State Female Senior Achievement Award at a department ceremony in May. The senior co-captain also appeared in Sports Illustrated's "Faces in the Crowd" section for the April 14 issue.
 
Academically, Leonard earned her second consecutive College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) Academic All-America Division III Women's At-Large selection this past season, and she received the SUNY Chancellor's Scholar-Athlete Award for women's ice hockey in 2016-17 as well. She made the Dean's List every semester in which she attended Plattsburgh State, and she was a member of the Omicron Delta Kappa (leadership), Chi Alpha Sigma (athletics), Phi Kappa Phi (multidisciplinary) and Phi Alpha (social work) honor societies. Leonard also was a three-time ECAC Women's West All-Academic qualifier, a three-time State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) All-Academic Team member, a two-time SUNYAC Commissioner's List honoree and a one-time SUNYAC Commissioner's Academic Honor Roll choice. In addition, she was one of two female recipients of Plattsburgh State's Dr. Richard D. Semmler '68 Award in 2016-17, which is bestowed upon the male and female student-athletes with the highest cumulative grade-point average through the fall semester of their senior year.
 
Leonard is set to pursue a Master of Social Work degree at McGill University in Montréal, Québec. Because she plans to play professionally for Karlskrona HK in Karlskrona, Sweden, she is deferring her enrollment at McGill to the fall of 2018.

To qualify for an NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship, student-athletes must excel academically and athletically, be in their final year of eligibility and plan to pursue graduate study. Student-athletes must also maintain at least a 3.2 grade-point average and be nominated by their institution's faculty athletics representative.