ST. LOUIS – Southern Illinois senior middle hitter Emma Baalman, senior setter Rachel Maguireand junior libero Katy Kluge have been named to Missouri Valley Conference Scholar-Athlete Teams, the league announced Tuesday. Baalman and Maguire both earned MVC Scholar-Athlete First Team honors while Kluge claimed Scholar-Athlete Honorable Mention honors.
It marks the second-straight season in which the Salukis have placed three on MVC Scholar-Athlete teams. SIU has earned at least one honoree in 27 of the 28 years in which the awards have been given out. Southern’s three honorees are tied with Illinois State for the most of any Valley school.
Baalman ends her career with her first MVC Scholar-Athlete honor. The graduate student from Calhoun, Ill. led the Missouri Valley Conference in hitting percentage (.298) and had the seventh-most service aces of any middle hitter in the nation. Baalman earned her bachelor’s degree from SIU in exercise science and is currently working towards a master’s degree in kinesiology. She tallied six 10-plus kill performances, which included 12 kills in SIU’s five-set win over Valpo (2/14). She hit at least .300 in 10 of SIU’s 20 matches, which included three matches in which she hit over .400.
Maguire was named to the MVC Scholar-Athlete First Team for the second-straight season after she had a productive season as SIU’s lone setter. The Bloomington, Ill. native had the fifth-most total assists in the Valley, and finished 28th nationally, with 733 assists. She recorded 12 assist-dig double-doubles and notched 19 double-digit assist performances, which included a career-high 59 assists to go along with 16 digs in SIU’s win over Valpo (2/14). Her 59 assists were the most by a Saluki since 2011 while her 9.78 assists per set average was the highest by a Saluki since Hannah Kaminsky averaged 10.57 assists per set in 2013.
Kluge earned the first MVC Scholar-Athlete honor of her career after she had a breakout season as SIU’s libero. The junior from Oconomowoc, Wis. finished seventh in the Valley in digs per set (4.68). Her 4.68 digs per set average was more than two digs more per set than last season’s average of 2.54. She also finished sixth in the Valley, and 26th nationally in total digs (356). A marketing major at SIU, Kluge notched double-digit digs in all of SIU’s matches this season, which includes five matches with 20 or more digs.
The criteria for the scholar-athlete team balloting parallels the CoSIDA (College Sports Information Directors of America) standards for Academic All-America voting. Nominees must be starters or important reserves, have played at least 75-percent of a team’s games, and must carry at least a 3.20 GPA (on a 4.0 scale).
