NEWTON, Mass. -- Mount Ida College seniors Shaun Royce (South Windsor, Conn.) and Joe Galante (Framingham, Mass.) were both selected as members of the New England Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association (NEILA) Academic All-New England Team, announced Thursday afternoon.

Members of this team are all graduating seniors who have excelled both in the classroom and on the playing field. 

In order to be selected for this team, student-athletes must be in their final year of eligibility, have posted a cumulative grade point average of 3.0 or higher, and be a significant enough contributor on the field that they were nominated for conference or regional recognition.

Galante returned from injury to play in 15 games in his senior season, scoring 13 goals, good for fifth on the team, while also tallying four assists, 19 ground balls and 7 caused turnovers.

Royce played in all 16 games this year for the Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) runners-up. He scored seven goals and had 8 assists, caused nine turnovers and grabbed 16 ground balls.

Both student-athletes are earning their degrees in business from Mount Ida this spring.

Seventeen athletes from eight Division 1 schools were eligible for the Academic All-New England Team, while Division 2 placed nine athletes from six different institutions. Forty-nine Division 3 student-athletes represented 27 schools by earning this accolade as well.