Nansemond-Suffolk Academy 2015 graduate Holly Kozak has been selected to the Old Dominion Athletic Conference All-Academic team.

Kozak, a Guilford College junior and a member of the lacrosse team, has shown academic excellence throughout her first two years of college, having been selected to the All-Academic team for both of her first two seasons.

Kozak finished the spring semester with a 4.0 GPA, her best yet. The rising junior said she holds herself to a high standard academically and is proud to receive the recognition. She majors in political science with a minor in Spanish.

During a normal week, Kozak said, she spends about five or six hours a day on academics. On Sundays, she spends the entire day on her schoolwork. After graduating, she hopes to attend law school. Twice, she has been named to Guilford’s Student-Athlete Honor Roll, and she is a dean’s list student.

“It feels good to get rewarded, but I personally feel better when my teachers or peers praise me,” Kozak said. “The academic honors are great, but when you get recognized by people around you, it feels more personal to me. I’m glad I’m able to represent my school and city, though.”

Being a student-athlete can be stressful. To be successful, student-athletes must make sacrifices. Kozak knows that, but she enjoys what comes with being a prominent student-athlete.

“It can be frustrating at times to have so little free time, but overall it’s really rewarding,” she said. “I couldn’t imagine what else I would be filling my time with without lacrosse.”

The Lady Quakers finished up their 2017 season with a 6-10 record. Kozak felt she had a pretty good season, despite working through some injuries.

“I had a shoulder injury I was dealing with, but other than that I thought the season went well,” she said. “We didn’t have quite as good of a record, but I love the people I play with and the sport that I play.”

This year she expects the team to have better cohesion. During the summer, she has been working on getting healthy. In her junior season, she hopes to average two to three goals per game and to accumulate more assists.

She started all games for the Lady Quakers last year and finished the season with 17 goals and three assists.

Against ODAC competition, she has recorded multi-goal games. During a March game against Randolph-Macon College, she recorded her first collegiate hat trick. Through two years of college play, she has a career total of 33 goals and six assists.

At NSA, Kozak was a four-year letterman in lacrosse. She also played tennis for NSA and finished second in the state during her senior year in 2015.