Nash Named Southland Conference Volleyball Student-Athlete of the Year

12/10/2015 1:15:03 PM

Southland Conference

Central Arkansas sophomore right side Megan Nash was selected as 2015 Southland Conference Volleyball Student-Athlete of the Year, the league office announced Thursday in conjunction with the release of the all-academic volleyball teams.

Nash was selected to the All-Southland First Team after finishing second in the conference and 30th in the nation with 1.32 blocks per set. Despite missing the first two weeks of the season, the Oakville, Canada (Holy Trinity Catholic Secondary School), native worked her way back to finish sixth on the team in sets played and fourth in matches started. The sophomore right side ranked third on the team in kills per set (2.08) and service aces per set (.210). Nash’s presence on defense helped the Sugar Bears lead Southland play in opponent hitting percentage (.131) and blocks per set (2.60). The Sugar Bears fought their way to a 12-4 record in conference play earning the No. 2 seed in the 2015 Southland Volleyball Tournament. Nash received an automatic selection to the all-academic team after earning a spot on the all-conference first team. Last season, Nash earned a spot on the 2014 Southland Conference Commissioner’s Honor Roll.

The Southland Conference awards committee, which consists of one administrator from each of the 13 member universities, voted for the student-athlete of the year award. The Southland Student-Athlete of the Year is presented to the one student-athlete who achieves excellence in both academics and athletics. All nominees must have earned at least a 3.2 cumulative GPA on a 4.0 scale at the nominating institution and have demonstrated athletics achievement for at least two years of athletics competition.

Southland All-Academic teams are comprised of 12 first-team selections and six second-team selections. Automatic all-academic selections include College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) Academic All-District honorees and those who received all-conference first team honors. This year, seven members of the all-academic first team were automatic selections, leaving five open positions on the first team and all six on the second team to be determined by vote.

Northwestern State led the Southland with three all-academic selections while Houston Baptist, Abilene Christian, McNeese State and Southeastern Louisiana had two selections. Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, Lamar, Stephen F. Austin, Central Arkansas, Nicholls, Sam Houston State and New Orleans each earned one selection.

Northwestern State’s junior outside hitter Lauren Agan earned a first-team selection while her teammate, junior setter Natalie Jaeger was named to the second team, joining two-time all-academic honoree, junior libero Bailey Martin.

Houston Baptist had two first-team all-academic selections in senior middle blocker Allison Doerpinghaus and junior setter Kayla Armer, a two-time all-academic honoree. Doerpinghaus was an automatic first-team selection after being named Capital One/CoSIDA Academic All-District selection. Earlier today, Doerpinghaus was named to the Capital One/CoSIDA Academic All-America Third Team, becoming one of 18 student-athletes to earn academic All-America status at the Division I level.

Abilene Christian and McNeese also claimed two first-team selections. The Wildcat are represented by first-team all-conference senior outside hitter Jennifer Loerch and senior setter Sarah Siemens. Senior setter Kelly Graham and junior outside hitter Malina Sanchez, a first-team all-conference selection, made the all-academic team for McNeese.

Southeastern junior middle blocker Landry Bullock earned all-academic first team. She will join senior setter Mikayla Shippy who earned second-team honors for the second consecutive year.

Lamar junior outside hitter Nicole Parish was named to the first team after being a Capital Once/CoSIDA Academic All-District selection. A&M-Corpus Christi sophomore middle blocker Brittany Gilpin and Stephen F. Austin senior libero OJ Olson earned an all-academic first team selection after claiming first-team all-conference honors.

Nicholls junior outside hitter Kaci Eaton, Sam Houston State sophomore outside hitter Jordyn Vaughn and New Orleans senior setter Celeste Ramirez were selected to the second team.
The all-academic teams are voted on by the head coaches, sports information directors and academic/compliance administrators from each Southland Conference university. Student-athletes must possess a 3.0 cumulative GPA, have completed one full academic year at the nominating institution and participated in at least 50 percent of the team's competition to qualify for the all-academic teams.

2015 Southland Conference Volleyball All-Academic Teams

First Team
Name	School	Position	Class	GPA	Major
Jennifer Loerch¹	Abilene Christian	OH	Sr.	3.10	Early Childhood Education
Megan Nash^{^1}	Central Arkansas	RS	So.	3.91	Kinesiology
Allison Doerpinghaus^&%	Houston Baptist	MB	Sr.	4.00	Kinesiology
Nicole Parish^%	Lamar	OH	Jr.	4.00	Kinesiology
Malina Sanchez¹	McNeese State	OH	Jr.	3.50	Nursing
OJ Olson¹	Stephen F. Austin	L	Sr.	3.10	Mathematics
Brittany Gilpin¹	A&M-Corpus Christi	MB	So.	3.33	Psychology
Kelly Graham	McNeese State	S	Sr.	3.69	Accounting
Sarah Siemens	Abilene Christian	S	Sr.	3.87	Biology
Kayla Armer²	Houston Baptist	S	Jr.	3.54	Psychology
Landry Bullock	Southeastern La.	MB	Jr.	3.45	Social Studies Education
Lauren Agan	Northwestern State	OH	Jr.	3.92	Psychology/Addiction Studies

Second Team
Name	School	Position	Class	GPA	Major
Kaci Eaton	Nicholls	OH	Jr.	3.61	Psychology
Bailey Martin²	Northwestern State	L	Jr.	3.87	Biology
Jordyn Vaughn	Sam Houston State	OH	So.	3.61	Accounting
Celeste Ramirez	New Orleans	S	Sr.	3.71	Music
Mikayla Shippy²	Southeastern La.	S	Sr.	3.87	Accounting
Natalie Jaeger	Northwestern State	S	Jr.	3.85	Mass Communications

^{^}2015 Southland Volleyball Student-Athlete of the Year
^&CoSIDA Academic All-American
^%CoSIDA Academic All-District
¹First-Team All-Conference
²Two-time All-Academic selection