Southland Conference Announces 2021 Beach Volleyball All-Academic Team
FRISCO, Texas – Houston Baptist’s Lauren Huggins is the 2021 Southland Conference Beach Volleyball Student-Athlete of the Year, the league announced Wednesday with its all-academic teams. Student-Athlete of the Year awards are presented by
GEICO.
Huggins boasts a 3.79 GPA in psychology and completes a sweep of the league’s top two honors after she claimed Pair of the Year honors along with teammate Alison Stanfill. The duo posted the third 20-win season in program history (20-11), including a perfect 5-0 mark at the inaugural Southland Beach Volleyball Tournament en route to Pair of the Tournament recognition. Huggins and Stanfill took down three ranked opponents on the year.
Huggins and Stanfill are joined on the squad by teammates Natalie Bennett and Danielle Okeke, giving the Huskies a league-best four honorees. New Orleans and Stephen F. Austin each garnered two slots, and Central Arkansas’ Faith Hasness and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi’s Giuliana Poletti Corrales rounded out the list.
Okeke, Stanfill and Stephen F. Austin’s Corin Evans and Iris Fletcher posted the only 4.00 grade point averages and all honorees own a mark higher than 3.41. The average GPA of the squad is 3.85.
The All-Academic teams are voted on by the head coach, sports information director and academic/compliance staff member from each institution. Student-athletes must possess a 3.0 cumulative GPA and have completed one full academic year at the nominating institution to qualify for All-Academic selection.
The Southland Conference awards committee, which consists of one administrator from each of the 13 member schools, votes for the student-athlete of the year. The Southland student-athlete of the year award is presented to one student-athlete who achieves excellence in both academics and athletics. All nominees must 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.
2021 Southland Beach Volleyball All-Academic Team
Student-Athlete of the Year: Lauren Huggins, Houston Baptist
| Name |
School |
Hometown |
Major |
Class |
GPA |
| Lauren Huggins^* |
Houston Baptist |
Ilfracombe, U.K. |
Psychology |
Jr. |
3.79 |
| Natalie Bennett* |
Houston Baptist |
Dallas, Texas |
Biology |
Jr. |
3.41 |
| Veronica Corcoran*2 |
New Orleans |
Closter, N.J. |
Marketing/MBA |
Gr. |
3.75 |
| Victoria Corcoran* |
New Orleans |
Closter, N.J. |
Marketing/MBA |
Gr. |
3.75 |
| Corin Evans2 |
Stephen F. Austin |
Katy, Texas |
Secondary Education |
Sr. |
4.00 |
| Iris Fletcher |
Stephen F. Austin |
London, Ontario |
Kinesiology |
So. |
4.00 |
| Faith Hasness2 |
Central Arkansas |
Spring Branch, Texas |
Homeland Security |
Jr. |
3.96 |
| Danielle Okeke* |
Houston Baptist |
Wichita Falls, Texas |
Accounting |
So. |
4.00 |
| Giuliana Poletti Corrales |
A&M-Corpus Christi |
Asuncion, Paraguay |
Finance |
Fr. |
3.88 |
| Alison Stanfill* |
Houston Baptist |
Las Vegas, Nev. |
History |
So. |
4.00 |
^Student-Athlete of the Year
* Automatic selection
2 Two-time all-academic honoree