Albany, NY — Putting a bow on exceptional careers, State University of New York New Paltz women's soccer and baseball graduating seniors Rachel Eisert and Tommy Kreider were voted as the 2024-25 SUNY Division III Female and Male Scholar Athlete of the Year as announced by the SUNY Office Monday.
 
The SUNY Scholar Athlete Award honors student-athletes for combining academic achievement with success in the arena of athletic competition. Students are nominated by their institutions based on their cumulative grade point average, current and career statistics, and athletic and academic honors. In the spring, fall and winter, student-athletes from each division are selected as winners, and in July two student athletes are named as the overall men's and women's winners from each division.
 
SUNY New Paltz swept the prestigious award, as both Eisert and Kreider were up against 22 others from Division III who were named for their respective sport this past year, which included fellow Hawks Lexi Atwater (junior, women's lacrosse), Julia Sabatino (grad, women's basketball) and Isabel van der Veen (senior, women's tennis).
Eisert was recently named as the 2025 Dr. Dolores Bogard SUNYAC Female Scholar Athlete of the Year, becoming just the third Hawk to be named for the senior award. The accolade was piled atop a copious number of other achievements in what turned as the best season to-date for any Hawk in women's soccer history. This past year alone, Eisert guided SUNY New Paltz to its second SUNYAC title and appearance in the NCAA Tournament after being named SUNYAC Tournament MVP along with earning her second straight SUNYAC Offensive Player of the Year nod. She was then named as a first-team United Soccer Coaches All-Region recipient, before solidifying her status as the best in program history as she earned USC All-America honors.  
Wrapped between her ability on the field is her prowess academically. She was named to the SUNYAC Commissioner's Academic Honor Roll for all four years, was a Chi Alpha Sigma National Honor Society inductee, became a two-time SUNYAC Women's Soccer Athlete of the Year and two-time SUNY Division III Women's Soccer Scholar Athlete of the Year and now named as the Division III Female Scholar Athlete of the Year.
 
Kreider, like Eisert, leaves as the best player in program history and the SUNY Division III Male Scholar Athlete of the Year honor just adds another notch as to why.
 
After leading his team to a second-straight postseason appearance and its best regular season conference record, Kreider was named as the Bob Wallace SUNYAC Player of the Year, the first in program history, and then went on to earn his third straight ABCA/Rawlings First Team selection before solidifying his second consecutive All-America recognition by both ABCA/Rawlings and D3Baseball.com. Additionally, he was named as a Preseason All-America pick prior to the year and leaves with 16 program records under his belt from the past two seasons.
 
Academically, Kreider excelled. He was named to the SUNYAC Commissioner's List for the fourth straight year, was a two-year Chi Alpha Sigma National Honor Society inductee and was recently voted as the SUNYAC and Division III SUNY Baseball Scholar Athlete of the Year for the second straight year.
 
Read the official SUNY press release by clicking here.


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