Carol makes ACC All-Academic Team

Lee

The CNMI’s Carol Lee was truly brains and brawn last season as she followed up her ITA All-American selection by making it to the ACC All-Academic Team in school year 2022-2023.

It marked the 22-year-old Georgia Tech Business Major’s second inclusion in an all-academic team. She made it to the ITA All-Academic Team in 2021.

Minimum academic requirements for selection to the all-ACC academic team are a 3.0 grade point average for the previous semester and a 3.0 cumulative average during one’s academic career. In addition, student-athletes must compete in at least 50 percent of their team’s contests.

Lee, who will be an incoming senior in the 2023-2024 school year, thanked her coaches, academic advisor, parents and the student athlete development at Georgia Tech for helping her out and pushing her to do well not only in sports also but in academics.

“I would like to continue pursuing both academic and sports excellence until my final year. It’s the student athlete’s role to manage the time effectively. I think having personal goals and making a weekly plan as a student athlete are helpful. It helps with time management,” she told Saipan Tribune in a social media message.

Lee, who is competing in a women’s under-25 tournament in Thailand right now, said she had to sacrifice a lot to strike a good balance between her academics and her stint in the Yellow Jackets women’s varsity tennis team.

“Having a social life with other students who are not student athletes, missing out on school events, or any sort of programs that’s not related to sports, and having free and open days are some of the sacrifices I had to make.”

Another difficulty in being an achiever in both sports and academics is her sleep schedule.  

“Maintaining sleep consistently, being able to have time to eat lunch, having to sustain energy for the whole day are also some of the challenges,” she said.

Georgia Tech women’s team tennis coach Rodney Harmon, meanwhile, said he continues to marvel at Lee’s ability to be the best version of herself on the court and in the classroom.

“Carol is the epitome of a scholar-athlete. She excels not only on the court but also in the classroom,” he said.

Lee led Georgia Tech with 29 singles victories last season. She capped the 2023 season as an ITA All-American after reaching the quarterfinals of the NCAA Singles Championship and earning a Top 16 seed in the individual tournament. 

The Saipan Community School alumnae led Georgia Tech from the top singles position all season, producing a 17-7 record in dual action. She finished the season ranked No. 14 in the ITA national singles rankings.

Lee is not the lone Yellow Jacket women’s varsity player to make the 2023 All-ACC Academic Team as her teammates Kylie Bilchev, Alejandra Cruz, Monika Dedaj, Rosie Garcia Gross, Mahak Jain, and Kate Sharabura also made the grade.