Moon Township, Pa. – Whitney Brown, a junior setter on the Robert Morris University volleyball team, was bestowed with Northeast Conference (NEC) Fall Scholar-Athlete of the Year honors, as announced by the league in a press release Thursday afternoon. Brown's honor for is for volleyball as the NEC handed out scholar-athlete awards to its 2019 fall sports, which included honoring a total of nine student-athletes across eight programs.
Brown is the sixth different volleyball student-athlete to receive the honor, joining Darcey Miller (2003), Alaina Gibson (2008), Amanda Graham (2009, 2010), Hannah Veith (2011), and April Krivoniak (2015). The Pittsburgh native is one of 84 Robert Morris student-athletes that were named to the 2019 NEC Fall Academic Honor Roll, including 35 that were selected to the 2019 NEC Fall Commissioner's Honor Roll.
RELATED: 2019 NEC Fall Academic Honor Roll / Commissioner's Honor Roll
A biology major with a perfect 4.00 grade point average, Brown's Scholar-Athlete of the Year honor is just another accolade added to her trophy case. In December, she was named to the CoSIDA Academic All-America Second Team, becoming the third female student-athlete in school history to earn Academic All-America recognition, and the second volleyball player.
RELATED: Brown Recognized on CoSIDA Academic All-America Second Team
Brown enjoyed a stellar junior campaign on the court, collecting All-NEC Second Team honors while quarterbacking RMU to a 25-5 record and the NEC regular-season championship. The setter paced the conference in assists per set (10.06) and ranked 70th nationally in that category. She also averaged 2.40 digs and 0.68 blocks per set, and twice was named Molten/NEC Player of the Week. Her 11 double-doubles this past season led the team.
In the career ranks, Browns will enter her senior campaign ranked eighth in assists (1,879), needing 506 more to break into the top five. She established new career bests in helpers (905), digs (216), and blocks (61) in 2019.
This past November, Brown became the sixth different player in program history to be recognized twice on the CoSIDA Academic All-District II Team, adding her name to a list alongside Alaina Gibson (2007, 2008), Amanda Graham (2008, 2009, 2010), Lisa Jaszka (2005, 2006), Janette Schneider (2005, 2006), and April Krivoniak (2015, 2016).
To make the NEC Academic Honor Roll, student-athletes must post a GPA of 3.20 or better, while Commissioner's Honor Roll designation requires a 3.75 or better GPA. All scholar-athlete award winners must have earned a minimum of 60 semester hours at their institution, maintained a cumulative GPA of 3.20, and participated with distinction as a member of a varsity team.
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