Feb. 25, 2009

The 2009 West Coast Conference Winter All-Academic Team honors some of the league's finest examples of the consummate scholar-athlete. Near the completion of the men's and women's basketball seasons, the WCC selects an all-academic squad for each of the sports. Santa Clara placed three on the list this year including the women's Elizabeth Doran, a two-time honoree, with the men's Ben Dowdell and Michael Santos both making the list for the first time.

Doran is a senior majoring in Bio-Engineering who carries at 3.92 cumulative grade point average. She has started 25 of the 27 Bronco games this season. She is averaging 8.2 ppg and 2.5 rpg and she is shooting almost 89% from the free throw line. All told at Santa Clara she has started 58 of the 80 games she has played in. For the second straight year she was named to the ESPN the Magazine Academic All-District VIII First Team.

As a junior, Doran received three academic honors as she was named to the WCC All-Academic team, the Division I-AAA Athletic Directors Association Scholar-Athlete team and to the ESPN the Magazine Academic All-District VIII First Team. She led the Broncos with a 39.4 field goal percentage, a 90.7 free throw percentage and 18 blocks.

Dowdell is a sophomore majoring in Mechanical Engineering who carries a 3.117 GPA. Dowdell has started 10 games this season, scoring 3.3 ppg with 3.8 rpg and 1.3 apg in 22.0 mpg. He set the freshman minutes played record last year at Santa Clara, putting in 890 minutes on the court.

Santos is a sophomore majoring in Business who carries a 3.388 GPA. Santos has started 17 games this season and is averaging 3.5 ppg with 2.0 rpg and 1.7 apg in 20.0 mpg.