ST. LOUIS - Three Indiana State athletes have been named to the 2011 Missouri Valley Conference volleyball Scholar-Athlete team it was announced Tuesday by the league office. Sycamore senior Shelbi Fouty was a unanimous selection to the first team while junior Morgan Dall and sophomore Monique Morris were named to the honorable mention team.
Fouty was honored for the third time in her Indiana State career and is a repeat performer for the first team. She was an honorable mention selection in 2009. Fouty was also recently named to the Capital One CoSIDA District V All-Academic Second Team. The senior has a 3.98 grade point average (GPA) while majoring in speech pathology at Indiana State.
Dall was selected for the second straight year after being a first team selection in 2010. The junior has a 3.55 GPA while majoring in Athletic Training at Indiana State. Morris earned her first selection to the scholar-athlete team with a 3.83 GPA. She has yet to decide on a major at Indiana State.
A total of 12 student-athletes were named to the first team by a vote of the league's volleyball sports information directors and nine additional student-athletes earned honorable mention. This year's team includes five players that have received previous MVC volleyball scholar-athlete recognition including four repeat first team honorees and one unanimous selection in Fouty.
Four members of the first team boast perfect 4.00 GPAs in Drake's Emily Heffernen, Northern Iowa's Shelby Kintzel, and Illinois State's Shannon McClaughlin and Tabitha Visk. The first team also includes Megan Bober of Creighton, Kristin Stauter of Illinois State, Ashley Mason of Missouri State, Amy Braun, Michelle Murow and Jenny Willms of Northern Iowa, and Mary Elizabeth Hooper of Wichita State.
Braun, Burow, Fouty, Hooper, Kintzel and McGlaughlin were also members of their respective Capital One/CoSIDA Academic All-District Teams.
Joining Dall and Morris on the honorable mention list were Emily Adney, Elizabeth Field and Sarah Waldorf of Wichita State, Brooke Boggs of Creighton, Alysia Mayes and Bailey Yeager of Southern Illinois, and Karen Rivatto of Missouri State.
ISU graduate Megan Mirs was a three-time first team selection while Fouty joins Tiffiny Graham and Tracy Swystun as two-time first team honorees.
A total of 45 student-athletes were nominated for the Valley's Scholar-Athlete team. The criterion for the honor parallels the CoSIDA (College Sports Information Directors of America) standards for Academic All-America voting. Nominees must be starters or important reserves with at least a 3.20 cumulative GPA (on a 4.00 scale). Also, students must have participated in at least 75 percent of the regular-season matches. Student-athletes must have reached sophomore status in both athletic and academic standing at their institution (true freshman and redshirt freshmen were not eligible) and must have completed at least one full academic year at their institution.
