Brianna Banks Named Arthur Ashe Jr. Sports Scholar

MEDIA, Pa. – Penn State Brandywine women's soccer standout and December graduate Brianna Banks (Philadelphia, Pa./Parkway Center) was selected to the Arthur Ashe Jr. Sports Scholar Women's Soccer Second Team on Thursday.

Banks, who earned her second Arthur Ashe Award, was a third team selection as a sophomore in 2017-18. Brandywine student-athletes have now been honored with Arthur Ashe Jr. Sports Scholar awards in three consecutive years after men's basketball student-athlete Anthony Lattanzi was a 2018-19 honoree.

Sponsored by Diverse: Issues in Higher Education Magazine, the Arthur Ashe Jr. Sports Scholar awards honor undergraduate students who have excelled in the classroom as well as on the athletic field. Inspired by tennis legend Arthur Ashe, Jr.'s commitment to education as well as his love for the game of tennis, the magazine has selected the top minority student-athletes who have completed at least two semesters at their institution and hold a grade-point average of 3.20 or higher every year since 1992.

Banks, who concluded her accolade-filled career last fall as the most-decorated women's soccer player in program history, was joined by sophomore women's golfer Sarah Willis (University Park) as the only awardees from the Pennsylvania State University system.

Following the 2019 season, Banks was named United States Collegiate Athletic Association Player of the Year, the first in any sport in Brandywine history, after breaking her own school records with 40 goals and 84 total points. Banks' 40 goals were a greater total than more than two-thirds of the 27 teams that comprise USCAA women's soccer.

The only four-time first team all-American in Brandywine history, Banks became the second student-athlete from the Penn State University Athletic Conference to win four consecutive player of the year awards. She led the conference in scoring during each of her four seasons with the Lions and finished her 64-match career with 119 goals, 24 assists and 262 total points.

Banks earned her degree from the University in Human Development & Family Studies last December, graduating in just three-and-a-half years with a 3.67 GPA. She was a four-time PSUAC All-Academic Team selection, while earning a pair of USCAA National Academic Team and Philadelphia Inquirer All-Academic Team honors.

Banks was one of 80 women's soccer student-athletes honored from colleges and universities around the nation. Among the 20 members of the second team, Banks was the lone award winner from a non-NCAA institution and one of three student-athletes who did not play NCAA Division I or Division II soccer.

Complete list of Arthur Ashe Jr. Sports Scholars