GRACE
MALONEY OF COLORADO COLLEGE, a senior
midfielder on the women’s lacrosse team from Wilmette,
Ill., has been has been selected the SCAC Character & Community
Female Student-Athlete-of-the-Week for the week ending May 6,
2012.
Among the traits that make student-athletes successful in college
is the ability to manage their time.
Keeping the proper balance between athletics, academics and all
other aspects of campus life can be challenging, but it’s
something Maloney has had no trouble
achieving.
Recently honored as Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference
Offensive Player of the Year, she was at the top of her game in
2012 while leading the Tigers to a share of the regular-season
title and the SCAC tournament championship.
Maloney leads the CC attack with 47 goals, 26
assists, 73 points and four game-winning goals. One of the most
versatile two-way players in the program's history, she also paced
the team with 47 draw controls and 35 ground balls.
During her four-year career, the Tigers have compiled a 46-16
record. In addition to contributing to the team’s success,
Maloney also has carved herself a niche among
Colorado College's all-time greats despite performing for on a team
that prides itself on an equal distribution of playing time and
statistics.
Maloney currently is tied for sixth in the
program's record books with 126 career goals. She ranks sixth all
alone with 183 points and 57 assists. She became the first Tiger to
eclipse the 40-goal mark in a single season since Kate Fitzgerald
(47) and Robin Harvey (41) in 2007, as well as the first CC player
to record 70 points since Cassie Abel (78) in 2004.
The two-time first-team all-SCAC selection has demonstrated the
same commitment to success in her off-field activities.
A psychology major with a 3.47 cumulative grade-point average,
Maloney currently is preparing her senior honors
thesis investigating gender differences in patterns of eye gaze
when discriminating different types of smiles.
While attending Colorado College, the native of Wilmette, Ill.,
received one of the school’s Venture Grants to conduct
cross-cultural research in psychoanalysis in Buenos Aires,
Argentina. She also has participated in a French and Arabic
immersion program, as well as teaching English at an elementary
school in Morocco.
Maloney has worked with at-need youth in Colorado
Springs for the last four years as a volunteer facilitator for
Court Appointed Special Advocacy (CASA), supervising visitations
and exchanges between children separated from their parent or
parents due to court orders.
As an intern during the summer of 2010, Maloney
assisted with the development of a program designed to provide
support for post-foster-care children while helping with volunteer
training and public relations activities. She received a Service
Award from the college’s Center for Service and Learning for
her efforts.
Working with children is the foundation for
Maloney’s future plans.
After graduating later this month, she will work as a research
assistant at the National Institute of Health’s Laboratory of
Comparative Ethnology. She will be part of a team investigating the
behavioral and social development of primates in an effort to
identify treatments of autism and other social anxiety
disorders.
Following that two-year stint, Maloney plans to
attend graduate school and pursue a doctorate in clinical
psychology.