May 12, 2009

FRISCO, Texas - - Northwestern State baseball student-athlete Jordan Nipp and Texas State women's basketball student-athlete Marie Moser have been awarded the Southland Conference's F.L. McDonald Postgraduate Scholarships, presented by Capital One Bank. Both student-athletes will be celebrated during the Southland Honors Ceremony May 28 in Galveston, Texas.

The McDonald Scholarship is the league's ultimate academic honor for its top graduates. The award is presented annually to graduating male and female letter-winners with the highest cumulative grade point averages during their enrollment at Southland member schools. The $2,500 scholarship must be applied to graduate study at an institution of the recipient's choice.

"The Southland Conference is thrilled to honor Jordan and Marie with the league's premier academic awards," league commissioner Tom Burnett said. "Both Jordan and Marie exemplify the ideals of the F.L. McDonald Scholarship, and we couldn't be more proud of their academic and athletic achievements."

As an undergraduate, Nipp posted a near-perfect 3.977 GPA in biology; a field he will specialize in when he enrolls in post-graduate school at Texas Tech later this year with hopes of becoming a physical therapist.

A native of Amarillo, Texas, Nipp was a star in both the classroom and on the baseball diamond. He earned his bachelor's degree in biology with a biomedical concentration and graduated this spring summa cum laude. On May 7, days after his commencement, Nipp was one of five Southland student-athletes named to the CoSIDA/ESPN the Magazine Academic All-District VI Baseball Team, receiving second-team honors. As a junior, Nipp earned Southland Conference All-Academic second-team honors and was named the Demons' Male Academic Junior of the Year. In addition, he earned first-team Academic All-State Football honors as a senior at Amarillo High School.

On the diamond, Nipp, who transferred to the Natchitoches, La., campus following two years at Odessa College, is an integral member of the Demons' baseball team. This season he has started 22 of the 27 games in which he has played. He has a perfect fielding percentage and has compiled 22 hits and a .250 batting average this season as Northwestern State primes itself for the upcoming Southland Conference Baseball Championships next week in Corpus Christi. In his two-year career, Nipp is hitting .284 with a home run, 32 runs batted in and 18 stolen bases. Nipp was a selected to the All-Academic baseball team and was a member of the Spring Honor Roll in 2008.

Moser will graduate this spring from Texas State with a 3.91 GPA as a biochemistry major. A native of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, she was named the chemistry department's outstanding biochemistry senior and plans on attending medical school in the Midwest with hopes of becoming a licensed physician.

A fifth-year senior, Moser had used up her eligibility prior to the 2008-09 season, but she continued to have an impact with the Bobcats. As a player, Moser played an instrumental role for her team, taking part in 60 of her team's 62 games from the start of her sophomore season in 2006 to the conclusion of her final campaign in 2008. She shot better than 44 percent from the field and averaged more than four points, 3.5 rebounds and 14 minutes per game during her career, which included 32 starts. She was named to the All-Academic women's basketball team in 2007-098 and was on the 2008 Spring Honor Roll.

Prior to her time in San Marcos, Texas, Moser was named a Collegiate All-American Scholar while attending Illinois Central College . She was also named to the ICC President's List and Athletic Director's Honor Roll while helping lead the Cougars to the NJCAA Division II national title in 2005-06. Moser was valedictorian of her high school class and was named to the National Dean's List, the Presidents' List and the National Council of Youth Leadership.

The award was established in memory of Dr. F.L. McDonald in 1996-97, a former president of Lamar University and 1999 Southland Hall of Honor inductee. McDonald served as Lamar's president in 1963 when the Southland Conference was established and is considered one of the league's founding fathers.

Each member institution may nominate one male and one female student-athlete who meet the following criteria: a letterwinner in a conference sport, be on track to graduate during the spring in which they are nominated or the subsequent summer, and plan to attend graduate school no later than the second fall following the receipt of the award.