Volleyball ranks third nationally in Scholar-Athletes

By Jacob Knabel on Dec. 1, 2017 in Volleyball

2017 Scholar-Athletes

SEWARD, Neb. – A 2013 and 2014 national leader in number of Daktronics-NAIA Scholar-Athletes, the Concordia University volleyball team raked in more academic honors on Friday (Dec. 1). Nine Bulldogs earned 2017 NAIA Scholar-Athlete accolades. The list includes seniors and repeat honorees in Annie Friesen, Courtney Jurgens and Alaina Ruszkowski (full list at bottom). The 2017 Concordia team led the GPAC and ranked third nationally in Scholar-Athletes.

In order to be nominated by an institution’s head coach or sports information director, a student-athlete must maintain a minimum grade point average of 3.5 on a 4.0 scale and must have achieved a junior academic status. A total of 556 women’s volleyball student-athletes across the nation were named 2017 Scholar-Athletes by the NAIA.

Concordia University ranks as the NAIA’s all-time leader in number of Daktronics-NAIA Scholar-Athletes with 1,310 and counting. The Bulldogs have been a regular national leader for both scholar-athletes and scholar-teams and are coming off a 2016-17 academic year that resulted in 78 more scholar-athletes and 19 scholar-teams. The 2015-16 season produced a GPAC best 92 Bulldog scholar-athletes and a national best 20 NAIA Scholar-Teams. The 2014-15 season culminated with GPAC-leading totals of 94 Bulldog scholar-athletes and 17 NAIA Scholar-Teams. During the 2013-14 academic year, Concordia garnered 101 Scholar-Athlete honorees (most in the NAIA) and 17 NAIA Scholar-Teams (tied for fourth nationally).

2017 Volleyball Scholar-Athletes