Women’s Soccer Athlete Anna Albi Earns Pat Blayden Spirit of Sport Award

(PITTSBURGH, Pa.) – Carnegie Mellon University sophomore Anna Albi (Cincinnati, Ohio/Summit Country Day) of the women's soccer program was named the Pat Blayden Spirit of Sport Award winner during Chatham College's celebration of Girls and Women in Sports Day on Friday, February 10. Chatham has hosted an awards banquet honoring high school and college female athletes for the past 17 years. At the banquet, three high school and one college athlete receive the Pat Blayden Spirit of Sport Award for their contributions in the classroom, athletic arena and community.

Pittsburgh news anchor Andrew Stockey served as Master of Ceremonies for the reception while Roots Sports Sideline Reporter Lacee Collins joined him as the guest speaker. Stockey and Collins presented Albi with the award.

In Albi's short time at Carnegie Mellon, she has earned herself the starting goalkeeper position on the soccer team while competing in what is considered the strongest athletic conference in Division III, the University Athletic Association (UAA). A UAA honorable mention selection this past season, Albi has made such an impact with her team that she was selected by her teammates to be captain for the 2012 season. But it isn't what Albi has done on the field, as much as what she has done off the field that made her such an exemplary candidate for this prestigious award.

Albi began serving on the Student-Athlete Advisory Council (SAAC) at the beginning of her sophomore year and has quickly become a leader within that organization. Anna was a volunteer at the Special Olympics Polar Plunge in Pittsburgh and was named the chair of the community service committee for SAAC. She is a member of Lambda Sigma, an honor society that is aimed toward serving the campus and the greater Pittsburgh communities. She was a site leader at the YWCA for the community service initiative that Carnegie Mellon gets involved in called 1000plus, where the campus takes a day out and does community service throughout the Pittsburgh area. She has also facilitated a field day for the children at the Pittsburgh YWCA for the Emerging Leaders organization.

Not only has Albi helped here in Pittsburgh, but also in Cincinnati, her hometown. She founded a doubles tennis tournament, Serving Up Hope, that benefits the Susan G. Komen charity. She has performed various tasks and participated in a delivery tour to the highlands of Guatemala for the Cooperative for Education organization and will be spending her spring break this year as an international volunteer teaching English to rural children in Costa Rica.

While doing all of this, Albi has been able to maintain a 3.93 GPA and has made the Dean's List since her first semester. She was named to the 4.0 club in the fall of 2010 and 2011, an award given by the women's soccer team to players who maintain a 4.0 GPA during the semester. Albi is a professional and creative writing major.