Faith Panhans Named Southland Volleyball Student-Athlete of the Year

12/8/2021 10:00:00 AM

FRISCO, Texas – Texas A&M-Corpus Christi’s Faith Panhans is the Southland Conference Volleyball Student-Athlete of the Year, the league announced Wednesday alongside the Southland Academic All-Conference rosters.

Panhans rounded out a remarkable junior campaign for the Islanders in which she was named the Southland Volleyball Player of the Year, Southland Setter of the Year and a first team all-conference selection. She finished the season ranked first in league logging 977 assists over 102 sets of play, with 9.77 assists per set. The Plano, Texas, native holds a 4.0 GPA as an elementary education major.

HBU and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi lead the way among the academic all-conference rosters with four selections, followed by Northwestern State’s two honorees. UIW, New Orleans, Nicholls and Southeastern round out the squads with one selection apiece.

Including Panhans, six student-athletes were named automatic selections to the all-academic squad after garnering first team all-conference honors. Four student-athletes make a repeat appearance on the academic rosters, including Cardinals’ Bethany Clapp, Lady Demons’ Haley Hoang and Islanders’ Panhans and Carissa Barnes. A&M-Corpus Christi’s Rachel Young receives her third All-Academic selection of her career. Four of the 14 members of the academic teams currently hold a perfect 4.0 GPA.

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

The all-academic teams are voted on by the head coaches, sports information directors and academic advisors from each Southland Conference institution. 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 in order to qualify for the all-academic squad.

First Team All-Conference student-athletes who meet all-academic nomination criteria are automatically named First Team All-Academic honorees.

2021 Southland Volleyball Student-Athlete of the Year: Faith Panhans, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi

2021 Southland Conference Academic All-Conference Teams
First Team

Name	School	Cl.	Hometown	GPA	Major
Ebonie Ballesteros	HBU	Gr.	El Paso Texas	3.67	Psychology
Anna Gadway¹	HBU	Jr.	Needville, Texas	3.96	Nursing
Ellie Wipf¹	HBU	Jr.	New Braunfels, Texas	4.0	Management
Bethany Clapp²	UIW	Sr.	Corpus Christi, Texas	3.83	Rehabilitation Sciences Minor: Psychology & Public Health
Carissa Barnes^1,2	Texas A&M-Corpus Christi	Jr.	Weatherford, Texas	3.89	Kinesiology – Pre-Allied Health
Faith Panhans^{^,1,2}	Texas A&M-Corpus Christi	Jr.	Plano, Texas	4.0	Elementary Education
Rachel Young^1,3	Texas A&M-Corpus Christi	Gr.	Frisco, Texas	4.0	Business Administration

Second Team

Name	School	Cl.	Hometown	GPA	Major
Kaley Feris	HBU	Jr.	North Richland Hills, Texas	3.96	Biology
Trinity Jackson	New Orleans	Jr.	Colorado Springs, Colo.	3.85	Art
Devon Bright	Nicholls	Jr.	Milton, Ga.	3.95	Art – Graphic Design
Emily Gauthreaux	Nicholls	Sr.	Homua, La.	3.81	Allied Health
Haley Hoang²	Northwestern State	Jr.	Plano, Texas	3.90	Business Administration Minor: Computer Information System
Jolie Hidalgo	Southeastern	Jr.	Opelousas, La.	3.81	Biology
Julia Carter	Texas A&M-Corpus Christi	Sr.	Buffalo, N.Y.	4.0	Psychology

^2021 Southland Volleyball Student-Athlete of the Year
¹First Team All-Conference selection
²Two-time All-Academic selection
³Three-time All-Academic selection

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