Feb. 19, 2004

Fairfax, VA--George Mason University women's basketball stand-out senior guard Jen Derevjanik (Staten Island, NY) was named to the 2004 Academic All-America Women's Basketball District III University Division First Team as announced today. The voting was done by members of the College Sports Information Director's of America (CoSIDA) in the District III area, which encompasses Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida.

Derevjanik currently holds a cumulative GPA of 3.33 and is majoring in psychology. The Staten Island native has started all 20 games thus far this season and has scored in double figures in 18 contests. Derevjanik currently leads the Patriots and is second in the Colonial Athletic Association with 17.4 points per game and also sits first among her teammates in assists per game with 4.2. The senior guard currently ranks in the top-15 in eight categories in the CAA, including first in assist/turnover ratio (2.3).

Derevjanik earned conference player of the week honors two weeks in a row, one of which was after earning Hawk Classic Tournament MVP honors back in December. In addition, Derevjanik was featured in the "Spotlight: A Player Worth Noting" section of the USA Today in the Jan. 7 issue. Derevjanik also scored a career-high 33 points at Virginia Commonwealth on Jan. 11 after shooting 11-of-18 from the field and 10-of-11 from the line. Heading into the final five regular season conference games, Derevjanik is in the top-5 in four categories in Mason's record books.

The Patriots will return to action on Feb. 20 when they host James Madison at the Patriot Center with tip-off at 7 p.m.

First Team
G Yoneko Allen (Western Carolina)
 G Jen Derevjanik (George Mason)
G Samantha Pankey (East Carolina)
F Kristal Tharp (Liberty)
G Kylie Williamson (Radford)

Second Team
C Katie Feenstra (Liberty)
C Erin Gibson (Virginia Tech)
F Ieva Kublina (Virginia Tech)
F Amanda Neby (Radford)
G Danielle Santos (Florida)