Hicks Earns Second-Team CSC Academic All-America Honors For Second Time

The first 2025-26 Ashland University Academic All-America now is a two-time honoree.
 
As revealed by the College Sports Communicators (CSC) on Wednesday (Dec. 17) afternoon, senior forward Dani Hicks is a second-team NCAA Division II women's soccer Academic All-America for the second time – having also garnered the honor in 2024. She becomes the fourth Ashland women's soccer player all-time to earn two Academic All-America citations.
 
Hicks sports a 3.94 cumulative grade-point average as an Exercise Science major through the spring 2025 semester.
  
The 2025 season saw Hicks collect 15 goals and nine assists for 39 points over 21 games (all starts). She ranks 11^th in the nation in goals, tied for 18^th in assists and tied for fifth in points.
 
Hicks finishes her Eagle career with 47 goals (fourth in program history), 29 assists (tied for fourth) and 123 points (third).
 
Also this fall, she has been lauded as:

• United Soccer Coaches (USC) second-team All-American
• Division 2 Conference Commissioners Association (D2CCA) second-team All-American
• D2CCA Midwest Region Player of the Year and first-team all-region
• USC first-team All-Midwest Region
• CSC Academic All-District
• Great Midwest Athletic Conference Tournament Most Valuable Player
• Great Midwest Offensive Player of the Year and first-team all-league

Eagle women's soccer was 14-3-5 overall and 10-0-4 in the Great Midwest in 2025, winning both the conference's regular-season and tournament titles, and was victorious in the first round of the NCAA postseason. Ashland was slotted No. 24 in the season-ending USC Top 25 NCAA Division II women's poll.

Ashland's athletic department now has 122 all-time Academic All-America citations.
  2025 – Dani Hicks, F (second-team)
2024 – Dani Hicks, F (second-team)
2024 – McKinley Mendenhall, F (third-team)
2022 – McKinley Mendenhall, F (third-team)
2021 – Tori Baker, D (second-team)
2020-21 – Tori Baker, D (second-team)
2016 – Jessica Brown, D (second-team)
2003 – Becky Richards, D (first-team)
2002 – Becky Richards, D (first-team)
2001 – Tiffany Crooks, GK (first-team)