Skyhawk seniors listed among 28 student-athletes up for consideration
NE10 Man and Woman of the Year Nominees Announced
Dunlavy is a two-time CoSIDA Academic All-District selection and nominee for the NE10 Woman and Scholar-Athlete of the Year (PHOTO BY: SportsPix) |
EASTON, Massachusetts (May 21, 2020) – Stonehill College seniors Rachel Dunlavy and James Varney have been listed among the 28 nominees for the Northeast-10 Conference Woman and Man of the Year awards, both which are selected by the league's Senior Woman Administration (SWA) Council.
Each nominee is a senior student-athlete that has excelled in all areas of their collegiate careers, on the field, in the classroom, and in the community. The two respective winners are set to be announced on Tuesday, May 26, via the NE10's social media channels. The 2019-20 academic year marks the eighth year in which a Man of the Year will be named, while the Northeast-10 Conference Woman of the Year honoree will be put forth as the NE10's official NCAA Woman of the Year nominee. Stonehill has had two NE10 Man of the Year recipients in Dana Borges '13 and Alex Demeule '19.
Dunlavy, who graduated in December with a 3.98 cumulative grade point average and a Bachelor's Degree in economics at Stonehill, is a four-year letterwinner and two-year captain on the volleyball program. She is a two-time CoSIDA Academic All-District first team and NE10 Academic All-Conference selection who received the NE10 Elite 24 Award for having the highest cumulative grade point average at the 2019 NE10 Volleyball Championship. Dunlavy is a two-time recipient of the Division II ADA Academic Achievement Award and St. Thomas Aquinas, Patron Saint of Students, medal for having the highest cumulative GPA on the volleyball team. She has been named to the NE10 Academic Honor Roll, Athletic Director's Honor Roll and Dean's List all seven semesters, with a 4.0 GPA six of seven semesters, and received the Fred C. Petti Female Scholar-Athlete Award for having the highest cumulative GPA among all female student-athletes at the College three-straight years. She has been inducted to Omicron Delta Epsilon and Lambda Epsilon Sigma honor societies and has recently begun a full-time job with Alteryx.
Dunlavy appeared in 98 matches over her Stonehill volleyball career and finished ranked seventh in program history with 1,181 digs, including 447 her senior year which ranks fifth on the program's single-season list. She is a two-time NE10 Libero of the Week and ranked seventh among NE10 leaders with her 4.52 digs per set last fall. Most recently Dunlavy was named Stonehill's Edward E. Martin Women's Scholar-Athlete Award recipient and is Stonehill's NE10 Female Scholar-Athlete nominee.
Varney is a two-time Hockey Humanitarian Award nominee and two-year president of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (PHOTO BY: Mary Gettens) |
Varney, a two-time Hockey Humanitarian Award nominee, is a four-year member of the Stonehill ice hockey team, serving as assistant captain as a senior in helping guide the Skyhawks to the NE10 Championship. He appeared in 60 games over his career, with five goals and six assists, including a pair of game-winning goals. Varney, who will earn his Bachelor's Degree in international business, has been named to the NE10 Academic Honor Roll and Athletic Director's Honor Roll multiple semesters. He has been active with Stonehill ROTC over the last two years of his collegiate career, enlisting in ROTC Basic Officer Training during the summer of 2019, and being named an Executive Officer in December.
He is president of the Stonehill Student-Athlete Advisory Committee and co-vice president of NE10 SAAC, while becoming Northeast Regional Fellow for Team IMPACT and an on-campus ambassador for Make-a-Wish. Varney is a co-founder and vice president for the Stonehill chapter of Hope Happens Here and has also been involved with the Stonehill JED Foundation and Stonehill Leadership Board. He received the College's Vice President's Award this spring and was Stonehill's Fr. Jack McCarthy, CSC Men's Leadership Award recipient.
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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