Tara Ballay

Classroom

Rider midfielder Tara Ballay is a psychology major with a 3.88 GPA through her junior year. Ballay was awarded a CoSIDA Capital One Academic All-American for the 2014-2015 year.

Character

This will be Ballay’s second year as team captain. She has proven to fight through adversity by once coming back from missing five games due to a broken leg to play in MAAC Championship tournament and NCAA Tournament.

Community

in 2013, Ballay was involved in the local community by providing a pre-Thanksgiving meal at the Loaves and Fishes gathering for the Trenton area homeless. She spent the morning serving tea, coffee and juice, preparing lunch and hosting the children’s activity table. Previously, Ballay was also involved with the Zeta Tau Alpha fraternity. Through this fraternity she hosted a special Kicks Against Cancer soccer match to help raise breast cancer awareness on the Lawrenceville campus. She has been involved with Special Olympics N.J. in the Fall Unified Sports Club day where she instructed the Special Olympic Athletes with soccer skills and officiated soccer games. She also has volunteered at the annual Special Olympics bowling competition in Ewing.

Competition

Ballay’s achievements as a college athlete have been nothing but impressive. Most recently she was named 2015 Preseason Player of the Year. Last year she earned 2014 MAAC Player of the Year, third-team All-East, and All-ECAC Second Team. Ballay led MAAC in goals and points despite her missing five games and coming back to play three more games with a broken leg.