ST. LOUIS – Twelve Missouri Valley Conference volleyball student-athletes have been named to the 2014 MVC Scholar-Athlete First Team by a vote of the league's volleyball sports information directors. An additional 12 student-athletes have earned honorable mention, the league office announced today.
University of Evansville senior Ashley Ring was the only unanimous selection to the team. Her stellar career not only set records on the court, but was also strong in the classroom. The native of Madison, Wisc. posted a 3.82 GPA in Biology.
This year's first team includes seven players that have received previous MVC volleyball scholar-athlete recognition, including six repeat first team honorees. One member of the first team boasts a perfect 4.00 GPA in Indiana State's Bree Spangler, while another first team honoree was the only unanimous selection, in Evansville's Ashley Ring.
Three Valley first team scholar-athletes – Missouri State's Andrea Beaty and Indiana State's Spangler – were also members of their respective Capital One/CoSida Academic All-District Teams.
Forty-two 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 freshmen and redshirt freshmen were not eligible).
| 2014 MVC VOLLEYBALL SCHOLAR-ATHLETE FIRST TEAM |
| Name | School | Yr. | GPA | Major | Hometown |
| Andrea Beaty ^ | Missouri State | Sr. | 3.90 | Psychology/Human Resource Management | Pacific, Mo. |
| Kaitlyn Early# | Illinois State | Sr. | 3.75 | Math Teacher Education | Wildwood, Mo. |
| Amie Held | UNI | So. | 3.83 | Sport Management/Exercise Science | Festus, Mo. |
| Erika Nord | Indiana State | Jr. | 3.71 | Chemistry | Portage, Mich. |
| Emily Orrick | Illinois State | Sr. | 3.64 | Recreation Management | Mackinaw, Ill. |
| Taylor Pippen# | Southern Illinois | Jr. | 3.69 | Accounting | Mundelein, Ill. |
| Amanda Platte*% | Drake | Sr. | 3.83 | Accounting, Finance & Economics | Mount Vernon, Iowa |
| Katie Reilly# | Wichita State | Jr. | 3.90 | Exercise Science | Cypress, Texas |
| Ashley Ring#^ | Evansville | Sr. | 3.82 | Biology | Madison, Wis. |
| Ashley Rosch# | Illinois State | Jr. | 3.74 | Health Sciences/Environmental Health | Fox River Grove, Ill. |
| Bree Spangler | Indiana State | So. | 4.00 | Speech & Language Pathology | Coldwater, Mich. |
| Eliza Smith | Illinois State | Sr. | 3.94 | Public Relations | Melbourne, Australia |
| #2013 First Team; *2013 Honorable Mention; ^2012 First Team; %2012 Honorable Mention |
