Tulsa’s Rachel Thun-Blankenship Named Senior CLASS Award Candidate
9/22/2017 4:05:00 PM | Women's Soccer
Thirty NCAA® women's soccer student-athletes who excel both on and off the field were selected as candidates today for the 2017 Senior CLASS Award® in collegiate soccer, including Tulsa midfielder Rachel Thun-Blankenship. 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: community, classroom, character and competition.
Thun-Blankenship is highly involved in the community, volunteering five days a week for four months at Laurette Institute for Brain Research, where she helped individuals with eating disorders and anxiety disorders. She leads a weekly bible study with current and former TU student-athletes, as well as serves as a weekly volunteer for a church youth group for at-risk children, and a small group leader for 8th and 9th grade girls. She also has volunteered with World Outreach Church, feeding and giving out clothes to the homeless, and helped lead worship with TU's FCA, as well as volunteered for the Salvation Army Thanksgiving Meal Drive. On the field, Thun-Blankenship works with Project 61, a free week long church/sports camp for children living in the most at-risk parts of Tulsa. With Project 61, she has served as a coach (2016), and as the photographer/videographer (2017). She also volunteered as an assistant coach for WSA Soccer Club, with the MTSC free soccer clinic and Tulsa Soccer Club.
Thun-Blankenship maintains a 3.19 GPA in psychology and will graduate in December 2017. She has been named to the Tulsa President's List twice, the Dean's List three times and the Athletic Director's Honor Roll seven times. Thun-Blankenship is also a two-time American Athletic Conference All-Academic Team selection.
"Rachel is a true leader and leads by example," Tulsa Head Coach Kyle Cussen said. "She makes those around her better, not just on the field, but in life. She responds well in the face of adversity and you can always count on her to give her best, no matter the situation. Rachel performs well under pressure, she's very respectful and coachable, and she works to get better every day both on and off the field. Whatever she does, she does to the best of her ability and she's the epitome of what you want in a student-athlete."
Prior to her senior season, Thun-Blankenship started in 55-of-58 career games. She has scored 27 goals and added 24 assist for 78 points, and ranks first in assists, sixth in points and seventh in goals scored in Tulsa's top-10. Thun-Blankenship is a three-time American Athletic Conference first team selection. As a junior, she was also selected as The American Midfielder of the Year and picked up NSCAA NCAA Division I Women's All-Northeast Region third-team accolades. Thun-Blankenship led the team in goals (12), assists (9) and points (33) as a junior, goals (7), assists (8) and points (22) as a sophomore, and assists (7) and points (23) as a freshman (She was second with eight goals as a freshman). As a freshman, she was tabbed to the NSCAA Division I All-Northeast Region second team, Top Drawer Soccer Freshman Best XI second team, American Athletic Conference Rookie of the Year and all-Rookie team honors.
As a senior, Thun-Blankenship has played in nine games, missing the first two games of the season due to injury. She has team-bests of two goals, three assists and seven points, as well as 21 shots.
An acronym for Celebrating Loyalty and Achievement for Staying in School®, the 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 candidate class will be narrowed to 10 finalists midway through the regular season, and those 10 names will be placed on the official ballot. Ballots will be distributed through a nationwide voting system to media, coaches and fans, who will select one female candidate who best exemplifies excellence in the four Cs of community, classroom, character and competition. ?
The Senior CLASS Award winners will be announced during the 2017 NCAA Men's and Women's College Cup® championships in December.
For more information on all the candidates, visit seniorCLASSaward.com.
Players Mentioned
Midfielder
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