ST. LOUIS -- Three Missouri State volleyball players were honored Tuesday by the Missouri Valley Conference for their performance on the court and in the classroom.
Melissa Gmur,
Cara Hackmann and
Sara Staubach all appear on MVC Scholar-Athlete teams following a vote of the league’s sports information directors, it was announced by the league office Tuesday.
A junior setter from Central Point, Ore., Gmur earned a spot on the first team with a 3.89 cumulative grade point average in elementary education. She is MSU’s assist leader with an 8.90 assist average for the season to go with 2.25 digs per set and a .420 hitting percentage. In MVC matches, Gmur hits .435 with 10.14 assists and 2.38 digs per set. She was the MVC Player of the Week Sept. 28 after guiding MSU to a .289 hitting percentage in a win over No. 20 Wichita State.
Hackmann is on the first team for the second consecutive season and carries a 3.84 GPA in finance. The junior libero’s long list of 2009 honors include four-time MVC Defensive Player of the Week, CVU.com National Player of the Week Oct. 13, MVC Player of the Week Oct. 12, and two-time MVC Scholar-Athlete of the Week. The Washington, Mo., native set an MVC record with 46 digs in a match Oct. 10 against Evansville, is six digs shy of the school record of 653 in a season, and has locked up MSU’s dig average record with 5.78 per set this year.
Staubach, a senior outside hitter from Cincinnati, Ohio, is making her third appearance on the honorable mention squad. The dietetics major has a 3.47 GPA and has led Missouri State in kills eight times this season with four matches of at least 17. She ranks 14th in MSU history with 1,028 kills and eighth with 3,187 total attacks.
A total of 42 student-athletes were nominated for the Valley’s scholar-athlete team. The criteria 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 athletic and academic standing at their institution.
