COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.— Led by
Sabrina VanDeList, who has now won the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Volleyball Academic Player of the Year award for the second time in three years, the Colorado Mesa University Mavericks led the conference with four selections to the RMAC All-Academic First Team, announced by the conference on Tuesday.
VanDeList,
Sierra Hunt,
Sydney Leffler and
Nicole Martin were all named to the team, selected by the conference's sports information directors based on a combination of athletic and academic accomplishments. That same quartet was also selected to the RMAC's First Team All-RMAC squad by the league's coaches last week.
Additionally, the Mavericks had four other RMAC Academic Honor Roll picks in
Erin Brown,
Marli Clausi,
Hahni Johnson and
Jordan Woods.
To be eligible for first team honors, student-athletes must have a 3.50 or higher GPA, have completed a full academic year at the nomination institution and used a season of eligibility. Honor Roll selections must have a 3.30 or higher GPA and meet the other requirements.
Six of the 14 total first team picks, including VanDeList and Martin, have perfect 4.0 GPAs, while six others have figures above 3.9.
This latest honor is another in a large string of awards for VanDeList,
who was named as the RMAC Setter of the Year for the second straight year while becoming the first player in conference history to earn five First Team All-RMAC honors last week. She is the first Maverick to ever win two RMAC Academic Player of the Year honors and was also named
as the RMAC Summit Award Winner for the third straight year last Friday for having the highest GPA of any athlete at the RMAC Championship site with ties broken by number of credits earned.
The Severance, Colorado native is majoring in elementary education and has also earned five total College Sports Communicators Academic All-America honors, including three for indoor volleyball and two for women's at-large sports for her beach volleyball accomplishments. The fifth-year Maverick senior is the Mavs' all-time record holder for both assists (4,990) and service aces (183) entering the NCAA Tournament and is the first Maverick to ever record four separate 1,000 assist seasons. She has also been named to the RMAC All-Academic First Team in all four years that she has been eligible and has led the Mavericks to 105 match wins, four straight 20+ seasons and four straight NCAA Tournament appearances in addition to a 15-1 record and RMAC title during the abbreviated and modified 2021 spring season.
In 2024, she leads the RMAC in both assists (1,174) and assists per set (11.86) while ranking second for service aces with 42.
Hunt, a fifth-year redshirt junior hails from Aurora, Colorado and is majoring in accounting. She holds a 3.95 GPA and was named to the First Team All-RMAC team for the second time (2022) this season after missing the entirety of 2023 due to injury. She was an AVCA Honorable Mention All-American at the outside hitter position in 2022 and moved to right side hitter position this season.
She has put up the best numbers of her career this season and ranks fourth in the conference for total kills (350) as well as fifth for total points (394.5), kills per set (3.54) and points per set (3.98). Hunt also ranks tenth in the conference with her .306 hitting percentage.
Hunt is also CSC Academic All-District pick for both indoor and beach volleyball and was named to the RMAC All-Academic Honor Roll two times previously.
Leffler, who leads all active RMAC players with 1,507 career kills, the fourth highest total in program history, was also named to the First Team All-RMAC squad for the third time in her career last week. The senior outside hitter ranks second in the conference for kills (398), kills per set (4.02), total points (457) and total points per set (4.62) this season and will have a chance at taking the conference lead in all four categories with a successful NCAA Tournament.
She has also put up the best defensive and serving season of her career in 2024, recording 205 digs and 49 block as well as 24 service aces.
Leffler was also named to the RMAC All-Academic First Team and as a Third Team CSC Academic All-American in 2023 after picking up D2CCA South Central Region and RMAC Player of the Year honors as well as AVCA First Team All-America honors for her on-court play last season.
The Eaton, Colorado native holds a 3.69 GPA while majoring in exercise science.
Martin, a sophomore middle hitter out of Colorado Springs, holds a perfect 4.00 GPA while majoring in psychology. She was named to the First Team All-RMAC squad this year and ranks second in the conference with her .380 hitting percentage. She has put down 287 kills (2.32/set) to rank third on the team and 57 blocks (0.58/set), good for second on the squad.
Johnson, a fifth-year Maverick from Anchorage, Alaska has now been named to the RMAC Academic Honor Roll in four consecutive years. She holds a 3.95 GPA and is now pursuing a master's in sport management after completing her bachelor's degree in Kinesiology/K-12 Education.
Woods, a senior counseling psychology major from Chandler, Arizona, holds a 3.61 GPA and has been named to the honor roll in three consecutive seasons.
Brown, a redshirt sophomore from Cortez, Colorado, holds a 3.80 GPA while majoring in civil engineering and has received honor roll plaudits in back-to-back campaigns.
Clausi, a sophomore business administration major from Salt Lake City, holds a 3.37 GPA and is being recognized in her first season of eligibility for the RMAC awards.
