Four Volleyball Bears Earn MVC Scholar-Athlete Honors

St. LOUIS – A quartet of Missouri State volleyball players were awarded by the Missouri Valley Conference Monday for their work on the court and in the classroom with spots on the MVC Scholar-Athlete Team.

Maddy Bushnell is the Bears’ lone representative on the First Team after earning second-team all-MVC honors last week. A junior from Springfield, Bushnell led the team this season in kills (341) and average (2.80/set) while posting a .274 attack efficiency. She reached double figures in kills a team-best 19 times, eclipsing 20 twice during the season. Bushnell, who owns a 3.93 cumulative grade point average as an exercise and movement science major, tallied 80 total blocks in 2023 and hit .300 better in 13 matches.

Kate Owen makes the Second Team with a 3.96 GPA in early childhood education. The junior defensive specialist from Springfield became the 27th player in school history to reach 1,000 career digs in the Bears’ MVC Tournament opener last week, and appeared in every set for the team in 2023 with 297 total digs and a 2.43 average. She also ranked among the league leaders with 40 aces and just 14 errors, and had 16 matches with at least 10 digs.

Seniors Lindsay Lahr and Katie Wemhoener round out MSU’s scholar-athlete selections on the honorable mention squad. Lahr, who carries a 3.83 GPA as a psychology major, averaged 1.31 kills and 0.77 blocks per set on the season for the Bears. The Leawood, Kan., native tallied eight or more kills in four different matches and recorded seven blocks on two occasions.

Wemhoener, a defensive specialist from Belleville, Ill., was a regular in the back row for the Bears in 2023 and ended the season with 200 digs and 16 service aces. A graphic design major with a 3.83 GPA, Wemhoener had five matches with 10-plus digs with a high of 13 at Iowa.

Fifty student-athletes were nominated for the MVC’s scholar-athlete team. The criterion for the honor parallels the CSC (College Sports Communicators) standards for Academic All-America voting. Nominees must be starters or important reserves with at least a 3.50 cumulative GPA (on a 4.00 scale). Also, students must have participated in at least 75 percent of the regular-season matches. Student-athletes must have reached sophomore status in both athletic and academic standing at their institution (true freshmen and redshirt freshmen were not eligible).