PULLMAN, Wash. - Showing off her skills on the field and in the classroom, redshirt-junior Rachel Thompson was named to the 2018 Google Cloud Academic All-District® 8 team Thursday as announced by CoSIDA. The all-academic team recognizes the nation's top student-athletes for their combined performances on the field and in the classroom. Thompson is the first Cougar to earn the award since Rachael Doyle in 2013.

One of the top student-athletes at WSU, Thompson earned first team academic all-district honors after posting a 3.78 GPA in human development. On the field, the Alaska native stepped in to the Cougars' starting goalkeeper role six games into the season and proceeded to lead WSU to the NCAA Tournament for the second-straight season. In goal, Thompson finished the regular season 7-4-1 overall with 2.5 shutouts. She made her mark early for WSU, shutting out No. 8 UCLA, 1-0, on the road to begin conference play while earning a 1-1 draw against No. 1 Stanford in late October. In both games, Thompson was at her best posting 12 saves in each game. After each performance, she would earn the Pac-12's Goalkeeper of the Week award.

As a first team honoree, Thompson is now eligible for Google Cloud Academic All-America®. First-, second- and third-team (if necessary) Academic All-America® honorees will be announced in early December.