Westfield State senior women's soccer standout Jenn Rennich (Bedford, Mass.) has been named to the College Sports Information Directors of America's District 1 Academic All-Region team, a prestigious award that has her on the ballot to potentially be named as an Academic All-American in a few weeks.

Rennich is coming off of a standout season that saw her hand out a school-record 18 assists, as she helped the Owls to a 15-5-1 overall record, a MASCAC championship, and a berth in the NCAA Division III Tournament.

The 2021 Academic All‐District® Women's Soccer Team, selected by CoSIDA, recognizes the nation's top student‐athletes for their combined performances on the field and in the classroom. The CoSIDA Academic All‐America® program separately recognizes soccer honorees in four divisions — NCAA Division I, NCAA Division II, NCAA Division III and NAIA.

First‐team Academic All‐District® honorees advance to the CoSIDA Academic All‐America® ballot. First‐, second‐ and third‐team Academic All‐America® honorees will be announced in early December.

Not only a standout on the field, Rennich has a 3.99 grade point average as a Movement Science major with a concentration in Sports Medicine major at Westfield State.

"It has been honor to coach Jenn these past four years as she worked so hard both on the field and in the classroom to be the best student athlete she could be," said Todd Ditmar, Rennich's head coach in soccer.

Rennich also plays on the women's basketball team at Westfield State.   While she didn't initially plan to play two sports in college a mutual interest arose during her freshman year.

"My high school teammate, Lauren Legere's dad asked why I wasn't playing basketball at Westfield.  And I sat down to write an e-mail to coach Bertini to express an interest as playing as a sophomore, and she e-mailed me asking if I was interested in playing."

"We had lost a player," said Bertini "And both Professor Schwarz and Todd Ditmar had suggested Jenn as she had been a high school player. I realized I had video on her playing with Lauren, and within one minute of watching I sent her an e-mail to see if she was interested in joining the team.   When Jenn joined the team I think she had two practices and I told her she probably wouldn't play a lot, and through circumstances of the game she ended up playing a lot, and I realized in two practices she picked up all of our out of bounds plays, our sets, our quick hitters and our press.  She pretty much had it down pat with four hours practice."

This past week, Rennich rejoined the women's basketball team less than 48 hours after getting back from the NCAA tournament with soccer, and picked right up where she left off – starting and playing 30 minutes in a 98-92 OT loss to MIT.

"She had six rebounds, three assists, and three steals, and on three of the rebounds she immediately kicked them out to our best shooter for three-pointers," said Bertini.   "She's hands down one of the most cerebral players I have coached."

"I was pretty nervous," said Rennich. I think I had picked up a basketball about three times since our last game in 2020, and I knew I wasn't going to shoot, because that would be a bad idea."

There were few bad ideas on the soccer pitch for Rennich who finished the year with 14 goals and 18 assists.

Remarkably, she didn't score a point in the Owls first six games, needing some time to mesh her skills with first-year standout Delaney Parker.

"it took a while to figure out how each other played, so that we could both connect and know what each other would do," said Rennich, who ended up second in NCAA Division III in assists with 18, while scoring 14 goals of her own. (Parker meanwhile, led the nation with 31 goals, giving the Owls a dynamic duo on the offensive attack.)

Rennich broke out in a big way with three goals and an assist against Framingham State on September 18, one of two hat tricks and four multi-goal games on the year.  She also had three games of three assists, and had multiple assists in a game six times.

Rennich has career totals of 27 goals, 38 assists and 92 points.   She tied the school record for career assists and ends up tied for sixth in career points and 12^th in career goals. She has the fourth-best single season points total with 46 this season.

'The team will miss her guidance and commitment she displayed every practice and game she played in," said Ditmar.  "Jenn is a great leader and has earned the highest respect from all of her teammates."

Rennich said her experience with soccer at Westfield State "has been incredible.  The team has been super successful, and everyone on the team has been so welcoming and supportive," said Rennich. "As a freshman I came in and played a lot, and everyone was super supportive and got along really well."

Her favorite part of soccer at Westfield State has been "Winning MASCAC's" which the Owls did her freshman year, and again this season after losing a heartbreaker with minutes left in overtime in the conference championship game her sophomore year.

'Me, Madi (Dufries), and Morgan (Remington), the other seniors, definitely had that as a goal to win the MASCAC.  It still stung more than a year after that game, maybe more so because we didn't have a chance to redeem ourselves in 2020 because of the pandemic."

"I played soccer, basketball and ran track in high school," said Rennich. "And often would have AAU basketball or club soccer at the same time as well, so I was super busy, so playing two sports at Westfield was not much of an adjustment, and I think I do better in school with the time crunch to get things done.

"For my senior seminar I am presenting at CURCA (Center for Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity) on sport specialization and the effect it has on burnout, stress, and quitting," said Rennich. "I think I am a pretty good example of that," said Rennich.

With the NCAA eligibility waiver for the 2020 season, Rennich does have the ability to come back and play another season at Westfield State, though she currently plans to graduate in the spring and go on to physical therapy school, and has applied to the Mayo Clinic, Mass General Hospital and Boston University.

"I've known I wanted to get into physical therapy since high school," said Rennich. "I want to stay involved with sports."

Release courtesy of Westfield State Sports Information