UNC Asheville's Grace Volk Voted 2021-22 Big South Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (www.BigSouthSports.com) – UNC Asheville volleyball setter
Grace Volk (Arlington, Neb.) has been voted the 2021-22 Big South Conference Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year, it was announced today by the league office. The Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year is voted on by the Big South Sports Information Directors from a pool of each sport’s Scholar-Athlete winner announced during the regular-season.
Volk is the first-ever UNC Asheville female athlete to be honored in the award’s history (since 1995-96), and is just the second volleyball student-athlete to receive this distinction. She capped her collegiate career as a recipient of the Big South’s Christenberry Award for Academic Excellence, as she maintained a perfect 4.0 GPA as a Chemistry major. Voted a CoSIDA First-Team Academic All-District honoree for the 2021 season -- her second consecutive CoSIDA Academic All-District accolade, Volk was a recipient of the Goldwater Scholarship, a national award given to an undergraduate student in the natural sciences, engineering, or mathematics. She also earned the 2022 Manly E. Wright Award, which is a valedictory award presented to the graduate who ranks first in scholarship at the May commencement ceremony. On the court, Volk served as the Bulldogs' primary setter in 2021, and was third among Big South setters with an average of 7.88 assists per set. The two-time Big South Volleyball Scholar-Athlete of the Year winner ranks in the top-10 all-time in school history with 1,579 assists, and also tallied 92 kills, 45 aces, 508 digs and 63 total blocks for the Bulldogs during her career.
In the voting, Volk finished with 37 points (four first-place votes), followed by Charleston Southern softball player
Annah Junge (26 points, two first-place votes) and UNC Asheville track & field athlete
Claudia Prieto, who was third with 25 points (one first-place vote).