BOSTON – Suffolk volleyball saw four student-athletes garner College Sports Communicators Academic All-District honors in senior Kenzley Bell, junior Emily Wheeler and sophomores Jayla Martinez and Alina Nowakowski.
Presented by College Sports Communicators, formerly known as College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA), the honor is given to the most accomplished student-athletes for combined excellence in academic and athletic achievements each year since 1952. This is the longest-running and most prestigious academic and athletic award a student-athlete may receive.
All nominees must have a GPA of at least a 3.50 cumulative grade point average (on a 4.0 scale), be a starter or important reserve, and have competed in at least 50 percent of a team's competition. A program was allowed to nominated a maximum number of four student-athletes.
With the addition of this year's four honorees, Suffolk volleyball now has five Academic All-District nods in its records books, all of which have come in the last three years under Scott Blanchard's guidance. The four acknowledgements in one season are the most by a Suffolk volleyball team.
Suffolk Athletics now has 39 academic all-district honorees in its history from CSC dating back to 2004, 28 of which have come over the last seven seasons including 15 honorees this year.
The Rams were joined by Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) institutions Curry (3), Endicott (3), Gordon (3), University of New England (1) and Wentworth (1) on the list that featured 690 Division III Women's Volleyball student-athletes. The blue-and-gold was one of just two CCC programs to earn the maximum four honorees alongside the Fighting Scots.
Bell, a two-year captain, backstopped Suffolk's defense all the way to the CCC semifinals. The 2022 CCC Libero of the Year led the league with 4.61 digs per set. Academically, the All-CCC First-Team honoree, who calls Park Lake, Georgia, home has maintained a 3.581 grade point average as a sports marketing major.
Wheeler, a captain from Hampton, New Hampshire, holds a 3.887 grade point average as an interior design concentrator. On the court, the outside hitter appeared in 57 sets across 22 matches with 36 kills and 31 digs to her credit.
Martinez, a Santa Fe, New Mexico, native with a 3.721 grade point average as a political science concentrator, was one of the Rams biggest threats at the service line with 0.65 aces per set. She also helped set up Suffolk's 11.26 kills per attack with 3.10 assists per set to her credit.
A politics, philosophy and economics (PPE) major, Nowakowski holds a 3.541 GPA. The middle blocker, who calls Mansfield, Massachusetts home, captured All-CCC Third-Team honors after producing 1.63 kps and 0.55 bps.
Suffolk's four honorees now advance to the CSC Academic All-America ballot. First-, second- and third-team Academic All-America honorees will be announced in December.