Thirteen Missouri Valley Conference volleyball student-athletes have been named to the 2009 MVC Scholar-Athlete First Team by a vote of the league's volleyball sports information directors and 10 additional student-athletes have earned honorable mention, the league office announced today.

This year's first team includes 10 players that have received previous MVC volleyball scholar-athlete recognition, including five repeat first team honorees and one unanimous selection, Southern Illinois' Jennifer Berwanger (3.86 GPA, Therapeutic Recreation & Physical Therapy).

The first team also includes Jessica Houts and Allie Oelke of Creighton, Angela Bys of Drake, Tabitha Visk of Illinois State, Whitney Fromm and Kelli Whitaker of Indiana State, Melissa Gmur and Cara Hackmann of Missouri State, Beth Discher of UNI and Mary Elizabeth Hooper and Emily Stockman of Wichita State. 

Three Valley first team scholar-athletes - Berwanger, Hackmann and Visk - were also members of their respective ESPN The Magazine/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) and must have completed at least one full academic year at their institution.