Posted by Press Democrat Staff Writer Michael Coit:

Sonoma State women’s soccer player Taylor Colacion has received a 2010 Arthur Ashe Sports Scholar Award.

 A defender for the Seawolves, the junior from La Habra was selected based on an essay she wrote about diversity at Sonoma State, in addition to her athletic and academic achievement.

Colacion has started all 41 matches her first two years at Sonoma State. She is a communications major and has a 3.5 grade point average.

The magazine Diversity Issues in Higher Education makes the annual awards in Ashe’s name.

The tennis great won three grand slam titles – the United States and Australian opens and Wimbledon – and was an active civil rights leader. Ashe died in 1993 from an AIDS-related infection having contracted the HIV virus from a blood transfusion during heart surgery more than a decade earlier.