TROY, N.Y. - The United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association (USILA) announced its 2021 Academic Awards and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) was well represented with two student-athletes and the team earning recognition. Seniors Chris Abbate and Jason Bram were both named Scholar All-American, while the Engineers as a group garnered an Academic Team Award.

Rensselaer, which is coached by Scott Hackett-Dalgliesh, had a term grade point average of 3.58 for the spring 2021 semester, which raised its cumulative mark to 3.43. Of the 55 members, 49 had at least a 3.0 with 30 earning a 3.5-or-better. Eleven student-athletes had perfect 4.0 GPAs. Cumulatively, 46 boast a 3.0-or-higher with 26 above a 3.49 and four with 4.0s.

Abbate (Northport, NY / Northport Senior), now a field engineer at Hensel Phelps in Washington, D.C., graduated with a 3.41 grade point average following a semester in which he earned a 3.77. A civil engineering major with a concentration in structural engineering, he participated in the National Society of Leadership and Success as well as the American Society of Civil Engineers. He also conducted research in RPI's civil engineering department and held internships with Judlau Contracting (2020), Bohler Engineering (2019) and RMS Engineering (2015-18), the latter two as a design engineer. A Rensselaer Leadership Award recipient, Abbate was an active volunteer with a variety of organizations while part of the Rensselaer community.

On the field, he played 21 games with two goals and an assist, eight shots (5 on goal), 27 ground balls and 10 caused turnovers as a long-stick midfielder. Each of his points came in the three games he played this year. (The 2021 season was truncated due to the COVID-19 pandemic.)

A midfielder, Bram (Reading, PA / The Hill School) had 50 points (34 goals, 16 assists) with 136 shots (70 on goal) and 24 ground balls in 40 career games. He was chosen to participate in the North-South Game after tallying 14 points (8 goals) in four games in 2021.

The business and management and economics dual major was involved in the Rensselaer Automotive Club and had an internship at Ayco (strategic relationship development). He will be attending Columbia University for a Master's in applied mathematics, while working with The Morgan Reed Group as a quantitative trading intern.