Leesburg, VA --- Senior Casey Hippert (Douglas, MA) has been selected as a First-team Division III Preseason All-American by the Beyond Sports Network.

Last season, Hippert had a breakout campaign as one of the best pass catching tight-ends in the NCAA Division III. He finished with 62 receptions for 1,050 yards and seven touchdowns in 10 games for the Lancers. His receiving yardage total led all tight-ends nationally and was the third highest sum in single-season history.

Entering his final season of eligibility, Hippert has 109 catches for 1,829 yard and 15 scores to his credit in 25 contests. In sixth place on the list, he is just 53 receptions away from Bryan Keats' (1995-97) for second place (162) and his yardage is just 650 away from the runner-up spot (2,479) held by current student assistant coach and former standout AJ Scerra.

Scerra and Keats are the program leaders in receptions (209) and receiving yards (3,031), respectively.

Hippert is a two-time all-conference selection, earning First-team All-MASCAC honors last year. He was also tabbed to the D3football.com All-East Second-team and he was a Second-team ECAC North All-Star.

Other selections to the Beyond Sports Network Division III Team included senior teammates Hayden Stanton (Wallingford, CT – DL) and Phil Terio (Trumbull, CT – DB) of Salve Regina on the First-team, senior Matthew Green (Stoughton, MA – WR) of Bridgewater State and fourth-year Jordan Shairs (Gloucester, MA) of Curry on the Second-team and senior Chris Tamasi (Canton, MA – LB) of Amherst on the Third-team.

Former linebacker Tyler Russell, who led the NCAA Division III in solo tackles with 92 stops in 10 contests in his senior year, was WSU's last Preseason All-American pick entering the 2009-10 campaign.

2014 Beyond Sports Network Division III Preseason All-Americans