Conway – While the Central Arkansas men's soccer team his coming off of what is inarguably its most successful on-field season at the Division I level, the Bears have also earned multiple honors for their work in the classroom this year. Those honors continued to roll in on Thursday, as junior Chris Holmes was named to the Academic All-America Third Team, CoSIDA announced.

Holmes, who carries a perfect 4.00 GPA in pursuit of a Health Services Administration degree, is one of an NCAA-high six Missouri Valley Conference players to be named to the CoSIDA Academic All-America Teams, widely regarded as the most prestigious academic honor in the nation. He becomes the third Bear to earn Academic All-America honors, and the first to earn them at the Division I level, joining Blake Barlow (2004) and Shawn Marvin (1999). On the field, Holmes was a key piece of a Central Arkansas attack that tied for second in the Valley with an average of 1.62 goals per game and led the league with 1.67 assists per game. Holmes, a native of Conway, tied for the team lead and tied for fourth in the Valley with five assists on the year while also scoring a pair of goals to finish third on the Bears with nine points.

"What an outstanding honor for an outstanding young man," said UCA head coach Ross Duncan. "Chris is in elite company as a student-athlete and I couldn't be more proud of him. Dedication is a word that gets thrown around a lot in athletics, but Chris takes it to another level. You can't perform on the field and in the classroom without an incredible work ethic and a focus on what really matters."