Meghan Colabella graduated magna cum laude from UMBC in just three years.

It’s on thing to be a good athlete, it’s another thing to be a good student, but it’s simply incredibly to have a team of 11 basketball players who combined for the third highest grade-point-average in the nation among N.C.A.A. Division I team in the 2009-10 academic year.

The team had an average G.P.A. of 3.578, which was third in Division I to Utah State (3.630) and South Dakota State (3.622). Between all five divisions in women’s college basketball, UMBC ranked 13th. Division II Michigan Tech topped all of the women’s basketball teams with a team G.P.A. of 3.732.

UMBC’s mark and ranking are the highest by any America East Conference School since the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association began recognizing the top 25 in 1998. The previous high in G.P.A. belonged to Binghamton University, who has a 3.412 mark, and the previous high ranking belonged to University of Maine in 1999-2000 and BU in 2001-2002 when the both ranked seventh in the nation.

Of the team’s 11 players, three of them posted a 4.0. Michele Brokans had a 4.0 in both the fall and spring semesters while Carlee Cassidy and Meghan Colabella, who both graduated in May, also earned a 4.0. Cassidy was the team’s lone senior last year while Colabella, who graduated magna cum laude, will attend graduate school during the 2010-2011 season while playing her final season for the Retrievers.

“We’re extremely proud of the women’s basketball team members,” UMBC director of athletics Dr. Charles Brown said in a press release. “It’s a great honor to be ranked third nationally among all Division I schools in team G.P.A., and it’s a testimony for how hard this team has worked both on the court and in the classroom.”