By: Chad Beattie
Not a bad way to close out a stellar four-year career. Just weeks after winning back-to-back NCAA Division II national championships, the women’s golf program’s fifth national title and Lynn University’s 22nd overall, senior Ellen Chambers has been named the 2013-14 Sunshine State Conference Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year and the conferences’ nominee for the NCAA Woman of the Year award.
Chambers is the first student-athlete in SSC history to receive both the female scholar-athlete of the year and the nomination for NCAA Woman of the Year award. She is the second Fighting Knight to garner female scholar-athlete of the year accolades (Christine Johnstone – 2010) and fifth overall (Gareth Dunn – 2001, Gabe MacDougall – 2008 and Lee Porter – 2009), and is the second from Lynn to earn the Woman of the Year nod (Alex Schunk – 2007).
Additionally, teammate Jessica Bradley was named the SSC Female Athlete of the Year, making this the first time in league history a school has swept all three accolades. This is the fifth time on the female side, and 10th overall, a school has claimed both athlete and scholar-athlete recognition.
The senior was chosen for both awards in a vote conducted among the conference’s athletic directors, senior woman administrators, athletic communication directors and faculty athletic representatives from each of the nine member institutions.
Chambers was a member of the No. 1 Lynn women’s golf team, which won back-to-back national championships in 2013 and 2014. She also helped lead the Fighting Knights to their first-ever SSC Women’s Golf Championship in 2014.
The international relations major held a perfect 4.0 grade-point average and was named the 2014 NCAA Elite 89 Award recipient at the women’s golf championship in May. She was runner-up for the same award in 2013. Chambers was named to the Capital One/CoSIDA Academic All-America At-Large First Team. Most recently, the senior was named the 2014 Lynn University Scholar-Athlete of the Year.
The senior will be named to the SSC Spring Commissioner’s Honor Roll for a fourth-straight year.
Chambers earned the 2014 NCAA Division II South/Southeast Super Regional individual medalist after winning with a three-round score of 218 (+2). She was named 2014 WGCA All-America Honorable Mention and to the WGCA All-South Region team. In her four-year career, Chambers recorded a 77.74 stroke average in 105 rounds with 16 top-10 finishes and two tournament victories. She owns the program’s career record for rounds played and ranks 7th in both stroke average and top-10 finishes.
Lynn finished the season undefeated against all NCAA Division II opponents and won a Division II record 11 tournaments. The Fighting Knights tied a SSC record with seven consecutive tournament victories during 2014.
Chambers was an active participant in the Lynn Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) all four years of her collegiate career. She also served as the Vice President of Lynn’s International Affairs Society from 2012-14.
Chambers was inducted into the Pi Sigma Alpha National Political Science Honor Society (2014), Lynn University’s President’s Honor Society (2013) and Lynn’s University Honor Society (2012).
As the SSC’s nominee, Chambers will compete against hundreds of other nominees from all three NCAA divisions for the prestigious NCAA Woman of the Year award. Last year’s SSC nominee, Lauren Boudreau from Nova Southeastern, was an NCAA Woman of the Year Top 30 honoree.