ST. LOUIS - UNI’s Emily Holterhaus has been named the MVC Volleyball Scholar-Athlete of the Year and headlines a group of 32 student-athletes named to the 2023 Missouri Valley Conference volleyball scholar-athlete first team, second team and honorable mention team, announced by the league office today. The team is selected by a vote of the league’s volleyball sports information directors, with approval from head coaches. 

With a 4.00 grade point average in Kinesiology & Sport Performance, Holterhaus, a senior outside hitter for UNI, is a four-time selection on the scholar-athlete team.  This year’s first team includes six players that have a perfect 4.00 GPA, while the second and honorable mention squads feature six more 4.00 GPA student-athletes. 

Fifty student-athletes were nominated for the MVC’s scholar-athlete team. The criterion for the honor parallels the CSC (College Sports Communicators) standards for Academic All-America voting. Nominees must be starters or important reserves with at least a 3.50 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).