VERMILLION, S.D. – South Dakota fourth-year junior Elizabeth Juhnke has been named to the College Sports Communicators Academic All-America First Team women's volleyball team as selected by sports information directors across the nation.
 
Juhnke, an all-rotation player for the Coyotes, is just the second South Dakota volleyball player to be named to the Academic All-America team and the first to be named to the first team. She joins Gail Ahlquist (second team in 1990) as College Sports Communicators Academic All-Americans in program history. Kelley Johnson of North Dakota State joins Juhnke as the first Summit League volleyball players to be named to first-team.
 
A native of Lakeville, Minnesota, Juhnke carries a 3.82 GPA in finance and was named the Summit League Player of the Year for the first time. She led the nation in kills (677), points (757.5), and total attacks (1,673) while leading the league in kills per set (5.33) and attacks per set (13.17). She was also named the Summit League Tournament MVP for the third straight season.
 
Juhnke produced the best season by an individual player in school history as she became the first Coyote and fourth Summit League athlete to reach 2,000 career kills. She set Summit League records for kills in a match (39) and season (677) while also contributing career-highs of 392 digs and 95 total blocks to go with 19 service aces.
 
She led the Coyotes to their third-straight Summit League Tournament championship and fourth NCAA tournament appearance in five years. South Dakota made history in the first-round of the NCAA tournament when they won two sets in the five-set battle against Houston.
 

Division 1
First Team
Name	School	Yr.	GPA	Major
Caitie Baird	Stanford University	Sr.	3.73	Human Biology
Diana Brown (2)	Illinois	Gr.	4.00/4.00	Molecular & Cellular Biology (UG)/Community Health (G)
Logan Case	Western Michigan University	Jr.	4.00	French
Logan Eggleston (3)(5)	University of Texas	Sr.	3.59	Management
Kelley Johnson	North Dakota State University	Sr.	4.00	Biological Sciences
Elizabeth Juhnke	University of South Dakota	Jr.	3.82	Finance
McKenna Melville (1)(5)	UCF	Sr.	4.00	Finance
Gina Rivera-Ortiz	Tennessee State University	Gr.	4.00	Health Sciences

 

Division 1
Second Team
Name	School	Yr.	GPA	Major
London Austin-Roark	SMU	Gr.	4.00/4.00	Management (G)
Kayley Cassaday	University of Tulsa	Sr.	4.00	Mechanical Engineering
Serena Gray (1)	University of Pittsburgh	Gr.	3.90/4.00	Applied Developmental Psychology (G)
Iman Isanovic (1)	Arizona State University	Sr.	4.00	Political Science
Magda Jehlarova	Washington State University	Sr.	3.74	Management
CC McGraw	University of Minnesota	Gr.	3.86/3.81	Sport & Exercise Science
Kendra Wait	Creighton University	So.	4.00	Nursing

 

Division 1
Third Team
Name	School	Yr.	GPA	Major
KJ Adams (3)	Texas Tech University	Gr.	3.95/4.00	Interdisciplinary Studies
Alexis Engelbrecht	Iowa State University	Jr.	3.80	Criminal Justice
Lena Kindermann	Jacksonville State University	Gr.	4.00/3.75	English
Elena Oglivie	Stanford University	Jr.	3.61	Science, Technology & Society
Amber Olson	UCF	Sr.	3.80	Accounting
Lexi Rodriguez	University of Nebraska	So.	3.64	Advertising & Public Relations

Academic All-America® Team Member of the Year: McKenna Melville, UCF
 
(1) - 1st team Academic All-America® in 2021 
(2) - 2nd team Academic All-America® in 2021 
(3) - 3rd team Academic All-America® in 2021 
(5) - 2nd team Academic All-America® in 2020-21