WATERBURY, Conn. -- Caldwell University junior defender Lea Masching (Salzburg, Austria) has earned the CACC Women's Soccer Top XVII award for academic excellence, presented following the CACC Women's Soccer Championship Game on Saturday. Masching, a Sport Management major sporting a 3.98 GPA, gained the honor as the student-athlete with the highest GPA at the Championship site.

Masching started 19 of the Cougars' 20 games on defense, recording an assist and two shots. She played all 90 minutes in all but three of those contests, coming out for one minute at the end of one game and exiting late in two comfortable Caldwell victories, effectively playing every significant minute in all 19 matches in which she appeared.

After starting 15 games as a freshman in 2023, Masching was injured in the first game of 2024, missing the rest of the season before returning to action this year.

Caldwell finished the season 13-3-4, the program's most wins since 2013 and best record by percentage (.750) in its 27-year history (1998-present).