Aug. 17, 2011
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By Jordean Matthews
UCFAthletics.com
ORLANDO, Fla. (UCFathletics.com) - Senior goalkeeper Aline Reis (Campinas, Brazil) was named a candidate for the 2011 Lowe's Senior CLASS Award. The Lowe's Senior CLASS Award stands for Celebrating Loyalty and Achievement for Staying in School and focuses on the student-athlete as a whole. It encourages students to use their platform in athletics to make a positive impact as leaders in their communities.
To be eligible for the award, a student-athlete must be classified as an NCAA Division I senior and have notable achievements in four areas of excellence; classroom, community, character and competition.
Reis is a National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) College Scholar All-American, a member of the Conference-USA Commissioner's Honor Roll with a cumulative GPA of 3.62 and a current mark of 4.0 and is set to graduate in December 2011. Performing well in the classroom is just one area in which Reis excels, she is also very active in helping those around her.
Community involvement is very important to the UCF family and Reis has attended Florida Hospitals Children's Unit to spend afternoons with kids who were recovering from different illnesses and injuries, assisting them with fun games and activities. In the fall of 2010, Reis participated in the "Help Haiti" cause by packaging food and necessities to send to refugees of the earthquake. In the spring of 2011, Reis helped host a booth in the Relay for Life campaign, raising money for cancer research and when Reis travels back to Brazil, she voluntarily runs coaching sessions for a local school of deprived children to try and raise participation levels in sports. At the end of each UCF season, Reis takes her soccer equipment back to Brazil and donates it to under privileged children.
Reis overcame a lot of adversity in her early days at UCF including the language barrier and injuries. Reis' first language is Portuguese so it was hard for her to communicate with her teammates causing her to feel like an outsider. Reis also required two ACL surgeries, two shoulder repair surgeries and a torn PCL. Each one demanded a lengthy rehabilitation process. In 2010, she played through extensive shoulder pain to guide UCF to a C-USA title and another berth in the NCAA Tournament. Reis believes teamwork to be of huge importance, and admits without it UCF is not likely to have experienced all of its success.
Reis also was a member of the Brazilian National Team Camp in 2009, an NSCAA All-American in 2008, a Hermann Trophy Watch List honoree in 2009 and an All-C-USA First Team goalkeeper in 2009 and 2010. She earned all-region honors each season as well. Reis has had 18 shutouts in her UCF career with 266 saves, a .801 save percentage and a 1.09 GAA. She has earned seven lifetime C-USA Defensive Player of the Week awards, which are tied for the most by any player in league history.
Reis leads by example by achieving good grades, excelling on the field and showing that it's possible to do well in other aspects as well. Reis intends to pursue a coaching position and eventually progress into physical therapy.
Reis and the Knights will begin their regular season on Friday, Aug. 19, at 7 p.m. against in-state-rival USF. The game will be broadcast live on Bright House Sports Network.