ST. LOUIS – UNI’s Cassidy Hartman and Valparaiso’s Emma Hickey have been named Academic All-Americans, the College Sports Communicators (CSC) announced on Tuesday. Both student-athletes landed a spot on the second team.
To be eligible for this honor, student-athletes must be at least a sophomore both academically and athletically, must have at least a 3.50 cumulative grade-point average (GPA) on a 4.0 scale and participate in at least 90% or start in at least 66% of their team’s matches. All-Americans are voted on by the organization’s membership from its Academic All-District honorees.
Hartman, a North Liberty, Iowa, native and outside hitter, is the 63rd Academic All-American selection in UNI history and 14th selection in the UNI volleyball program's history. The 2025 season marks the second straight year a Panther has earned this honor after Kira Fallert earned second team recognition in 2024. Hartman is also the UNI's eighth Academic All-American in the last four years overall and sixth in the last calendar year.
The 2025 Missouri Valley Conference (MVC) Player of the Year and a First Team All-MVC selection, Hartman led the league with 4.64 kills per set, along with 2.74 digs per frame, 58 total blocks and 19 aces during her junior season. Starting all 32 matches during her junior season, Hartman recorded ten or more kills in 27 matches this season, as well as six matches with 20+ kills, including a career-high 26 terminations at Southern Illinois in the regular season. An AVCA All-American Honorable Mention selection and All-Region honoree, she also posted 14 double-double outings.
The MVC Libero of the Year and an AVCA Honorable Mention All-Region selection this season, Hickey ranked 11th nationally and second in the MVC in 2025 with 5.06 digs/set, capping a collegiate career where she ranked among the top-15 nationally in each of her four seasons. She was a five-time MVC Defensive Player of the Week selection, giving her nine weekly honors for her career — tied for third-most in MVC history.
Hickey closed her career with 2,665 digs, 17th-most in NCAA D-I history. She closed the 2025 campaign as the active career leader in digs across all divisions and owned over 600 more digs than the next-highest D-I athlete.
In the classroom, Hickey owned a 3.936 GPA as a civil engineering major. She was the 2025 MVC Volleyball Scholar-Athlete of the Year and a three-time member of the MVC Scholar-Athlete Teams. Hickey has earned the MVC Commissioner's Academic Excellence Award, been named to the MVC Honor Roll and received Valpo Presidential Academic Honors. She is also a member of Tau Beta Pi, the engineering honor society.
Hickey is the fourth different Valpo volleyball player to earn Academic All-America honors, combining for five such accolades, and is the first since Rylee Cookerly was named to the Academic All-America First Team in the fall of 2021. Valpo Athletics now boasts a total of 42 Academic All-Americans, 30 of which have come in the last 22 years — with at least one such honoree in 19 of those 22 years.