Dunlavy is first Skyhawk to earn the honor
D2CCA Announces 2019-20 Scholar-Athletes of the Year
Dunlavy |
EASTON, Massachusetts (September 8, 2020) – Stonehill College volleyball graduate Rachel Dunlavy '19 has been named the Division 2 Conference Commissioners Association (D2CCA) East Region Scholar-Athlete of the Year last week.
Dunlavy, who was also selected as the Northeast-10 Conference Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year, rounded out her four years in the Purple & White with a 3.98 cumulative grade point average and a bachelor's degree in economics as she graduated in December 2019. She was the first female recipient for the Skyhawks and just second in Stonehill history.
In May, Dunlavy was Stonehill's Edward E. Martin Female Senior Scholar-Athlete Award winner and was a four-year letterwinner for the Stonehill volleyball team, serving as team captain as a junior and senior. She received the NE10's Elite 24 Award for having the highest cumulative GPA at the 2019 NE10 Volleyball Championships and is a two-time CoSIDA Academic All-District I first team and NE10 Academic All-Conference selection. Dunlavy has earned the Fred C. Petti Female Scholar-Athlete Award for having the highest GPA among all female student-athletes at Stonehill three times, received the Division II ADA Academic Achievement Award twice, and the St. Thomas Aquinas, Patron Saint of Students, medal for having the highest GPA on the team two years. She has been inducted to Omicron Delta Epsilon and Lambda Epsilon Sigma honor societies and earned NE10 Academic and Athletic Director's Honor Roll status all seven semesters, with a perfect 4.0 GPA six of her seven semesters.
Dunlavy appeared in 98 matches over her career, and the two-time NE10 Libero of the Week finished her career ranked seventh in program history with her 1,181 career digs, with her 447 digs in 2019 ranking fifth on the program's single-season list. She ranked seventh in the NE10 with her 4.52 digs per set last fall and fifth in the NE10 with her 4.25 digs per set in 2018. Dunlavy totaled 12 20-plus dig games and two 30-plus dig games over her career, posting a career-high 31 digs against Adelphi University on November 2, 2019.
Dunlavy earned multiple awards over her four years while maintaining a 3.98 cumulative GPA. |
In the past four seasons, Dunlavy assisted the Skyhawks to two NE10 Tournament appearances with both times making it to the semifinal round. This year, Dunlavy was also named to the NE10 Championship Team for her play during the Tournament.
Dunlavy, also Stonehill's nominee for the NE10 Woman of the Year award, is currently employed as a data scientist at Alteryz in her native Michigan. During her academic career, she completed internships at VDC Research, Meridian Health and Digitas. Dunlavy was an economics tutor at Harvard University, economics teaching assistant at Stonehill for two years and business administration TA during her final semester at the College. She served on Stonehill's MVP Planning Committee and Leadership Development Program for two years and volunteered her time with the volleyball team's Team IMPACT teammate and Ace's Girl's initiative, at My Brother's Keeper, Hope House and with the Special Olympics basketball tournament held annually on campus.
With 23 intercollegiate sports after announcing the addition of women's swimming for the 2020-21 academic year and women's ice hockey for 2021-22, Stonehill boasts one of the top athletic and academic programs in the country. Stonehill has won the Northeast-10 Conference Presidents' Cup six times, all coming within the last 15 years after earning the award for the winter athletics season in 2019-20. The Skyhawks have received the NCAA Division II Presidents' Award for Academic Achievement each of the first nine years of the program's existence of honoring institutions with an Academic Success Rate (ASR) of 90-percent or better. Stonehill has earned a 95% Academic Success Ranking (ASR) by the NCAA, which considers the academic success rate of the institution based on the graduation rate of student-athletes, good for tenth among all NCAA Division II institutions, with nine Skyhawk teams receiving a perfect rating of 100%.
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