WILLIAMSBURG, Va. - William & Mary men's basketball redshirt sophomore Paul Rowley was recently elected to the prestigious Phi Beta Kappa honor society, joining an elite fraternity in the world of academia.  A total of 48 men and women were elected in the spring semester, bringing the total for the 2016-17 school year to just 97 initiates, out of a graduating class of almost 1,600 (or just 6.18 percent). Rowley will graduate from the College in just three years with a double major in finance and computer science. 
 
Along with Rowley, Tribe Athletics also had field hockey athlete Olivia Hajek (Charlottesville, Va.) elected in the spring class, as well as men's swimmer Josh Zimmt (Barrington, R.I.) and women's lacrosse player Rachel Rapp (Charlottesville, Va.).  Since 1990, 71 W&M student-athletes have been elected to Phi Beta Kappa, out of 267 dating back to 1899. Rowley is the first Tribe men's basketball player since Wayne Metcalf in 1912-13 to be named to Phi Beta Kappa.
 
A CAA All-Academic Team selection, Rowley was a fixture in the Tribe lineup during his sophomore season, appearing in all 31 games with nine starts. He averaged 5.4 points and 2.4 rebounds per game, while shooting 50.5 percent from the field, 48.7 percent from 3-point range and 86.4 percent at the free throw line. His 3-point percentage ranked 15th nationally according to ESPN.com. He enjoyed seven double-digit scoring efforts, including a career-high 14 points in the Tribe's win over James Madison on Jan. 19. During the CAA Championship, he averaged 10 points over two games, hitting 6-of-7 from 3-point range at the event.  Rowley took home two awards at the Tribe's annual awards banquet, being named the team's Most Improved Player and garnering the 'Kraze' Award for the second consecutive season. The 'Kraze' Award is named in honor of former Tribe team captain John Kratzer, who received the inaugural United States Basketball Writers Association Most Courageous Athlete award.

Phi Beta Kappa was founded Dec. 5, 1776 at W&M as the first Greek-letter fraternity and is now the nation's oldest and most prestigious collegiate honor society, inducting no more than seven percent of any graduating class, with chapters at more than 280 colleges and universities.  According to the organization's website, "Phi Beta Kappa celebrates and advocates excellence in the liberal arts and sciences. Its campus chapters invite for induction the most outstanding arts and sciences students at America's leading colleges and universities. The Society sponsors activities to advance these studies — the humanities, the social sciences, and the natural sciences — in higher education and in society at large."