SPRINGFIELD -- Women's soccer standout Abby Couch (Kearney, Mo.) has earned the 2024 Dr. Mary Jo Wynn Scholar-Athlete Award, announced by MSU Athletics on Tuesday.

The Dr. Mary Jo Wynn Scholar-Athlete Award is presented annually to the graduating active female senior student-athlete(s) with the highest cumulative undergraduate grade-point average. 

Couch graduated summa cum laude in May with a 3.99 GPA in Speech-Language Pathology with a Basic Spanish Communication undergraduate certificate. 

In her career, Couch appeared in 68 matches with 61 starts to tally 5,200 minutes for the Bears. She scored four goals and recorded six assists in that span, starting 37 consecutive games through her sophomore and junior seasons. Couch earned All-MVC second team honors in 2022 and the third team distinction in 2023.

Academically, she was named to the MVC Scholar Athlete second team in 2023 and was a two-time CSC Academic All-District honoree (2022, 2023). Couch was named to the MVC Honor Roll three times (2021, 2022 and 2023) and was included on the MSU Athletic Director's Honor Roll each semester she has been enrolled at Missouri State.

She is the eighth soccer player to earn the Wynn Award, joining Alissa Donaldson (1997), Mary Litvan (2004), Karen Hymer (2005), Chelsea Voet (2013), Molly Brewer (2016), Laura Ketzer (2017) and Kaitlin Maxwell (2020).

The award is named in honor of the late Missouri State educator, coach and athletics administrator, Dr. Mary Jo Wynn, who became the first female to be named as a Missouri Sports Legend by the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame in 2014.