Bonnie Ryan
GoSycamores.com
TERRE HAUTE, Ind. -- Senior guard Kelsey Luna has been named Prairie Farms MVC Scholar-Athlete of the Year for the second straight season, while junior forward Kelsie Cooley was named to the 2010 MVC Women's Basketball Scholar-Athlete Second Team, the Missouri Valley Conference office announced Tuesday. Luna headlines a group of five of the league's top players named to the MVC Scholar-Athlete First Team, as voted by the league's sports information directors. She becomes the first women's basketball student-athlete in conference history to earn back-to-back Scholar-Athlete of the Year honors.
Luna's award also marks the fifth in Indiana State program history. Past Sycamore honorees include Kourtney Mennen (2003), Melanie Boeglin (2006) and Laura Rudolphi (2007).
Luna was named a first team CoSIDA Academic All-American in February, giving the Sycamores a representative for a fifth consecutive season. With a perfect 4.0 grade-point average in psychology, Luna was previously a Second-Team Academic All-American as a junior. The 2010 season also marks three straight years that she has been named to an academic all-district team, having earned first-team status the last two years and second-team plaudits in her sophomore season.
Entering the MVC Tournament, Luna is averaging 14.7 points and 4.5 rebounds per game. She recently became the Sycamores' all-time leader in career 3-pointers made and has 262 triples over the last four years, good for fifth in conference history. Luna also leads the nation in free throw percentage at a .925 clip.
Cooley joins Luna in being named to the MVC's scholar-athlete teams, as she earned second-team honors. A business major, she carries a perfect 4.0 GPA and has been named to the MVC Academic Honor Roll twice, in 2007-08 and 2008-09.
Cooley has started all 29 games for the Sycamores this season, averaging 7.4 points and 4.6 boards per contest. She scored a season-best 18 points at Evansville and notched 10 boards against Detroit Mercy to match her career high.
The criteria for the scholar-athlete team balloting parallels the CoSIDA (College Sports Information Directors of America) standards for Academic All-America voting. Nominees must be starters or important reserves, have played at least 75 percent of a team's games, and must carry at least a 3.20 GPA (on a 4.0 scale).
Student-athletes must also have reached sophomore athletic and academic standing at their institution (true and redshirt freshmen are not eligible) and must have completed at least one full academic year at the institution.
A total of 30 Valley student-athletes met the nomination criteria for scholar-athlete honors in 2010.
