July 22, 2011
San Antonio – The St. Mary’s volleyball team has earned the American Volleyball Coaches Association Team Academic Award for the sixth time in the program’s history, it was announced by the AVCA this week.
The Lady Rattlers maintained a cumulative 3.44 grade-point average last school year to win the award, which is given to programs that maintain at least a 3.30 cumulative GPA on a 4.0 scale.
One of 57 NCAA Division II programs to receive the honor, only 11.92 percent of all D-II women’s programs were recognized. In all, 478 teams were honored across all college divisions and select high schools.
St. Mary’s last won the award in 2007.
The award punctuates a successful first year for coach Jenny Warmack-Chipman, who helped put the program back in the national spotlight by leading St. Mary’s to its first-ever NCAA regional-tournament berth and winning the Heartland Conference Tournament for the first time since 2000.
Thirteen players contributed to the Lady Rattlers winning their most recent honor: Katelyn Kershner (Sr., San Antonio), Kori McCarver (Sr., San Antonio), Luisa Rodrigues (Sr., Belo Horizonte, Brazil), Mallory Moeller (Jr., Geronimo, Texas), Kirsten Chapman (Jr., Jourdanton, Texas), Stephanie Proske (Jr., La Grange, Texas), Adrianna Keys (Jr., San Antonio), Stephanie Flores (Jr., San Antonio), Allison Murray (So., San Antonio), Julie Kells (Fr., Red Deer, Alberta, Canada), Kelsey Davis (Fr., San Antonio), Melissa Dahle (Fr., San Antonio) and Karlie Ortega (Fr., San Antonio).