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 Mallory Duran-Sellers is one of 21 players in MVC history to earn First Team MVC Scholar-Athlete honors three times. |
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May 21, 2012
By Bill Ford
SIUSalukis.com
CARBONDALE, Ill.— Four Southern Illinois softball players were named to the Missouri Valley Conference Scholar-Athlete Team, the league announced Monday.
Senior Mallory Duran-Sellers, junior Brittney Lang and sophomores Kelsea Ashton and Jayna Spivey each earned first team laurels, giving SIU the most among the 12 players honored. This marks the 15th-consecutive season SIU has had at least two players named to the first team.
The honor marks the third First Team MVC Scholar-Athlete nod of Duran-Sellers’s career, putting her among an elite group of 21 players in MVC history to achieve that milestone. An English education major with a 4.0 cumulative GPA, Duran-Sellers earned the MVC’s Elite 18 Award for softball at the 2012 MVC Tournament.
The 2012 MVC Player of the Year, Duran-Sellers finished her senior season with an MVC-record 61 runs scored in addition to recording an SIU record-tying 45 walks in 2012. She ranked third in the MVC with a .362 batting average and drove in 24 runs with a team-high 17 stolen bases.
An exercise science major with a 4.0 GPA, Lang earned Scholar-Athlete honors for the first time of her career. The Leavenworth, Kan., native posted 11 wins in 2012 with a 3.77 ERA and led the SIU staff in strikeouts with 75. Lang and Duran-Sellers were the only players on the First-Team to have 4.0 GPAs.
Spivey and Ashton each pick up Scholar-Athlete honors in the first year they are eligible.
A native of Carterville, Ill., Ashton is a biological sciences major with a 3.92 GPA. The third baseman hit .277 with 27 RBI for SIU and was third on the team with 35 runs scored. She also led the nation with 23 sacrifice hits.
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In order to be eligible for the MVC Scholar-Athlete teams, student-athletes must have at 3.2 GPA or higher, be at least a sophomore in athletic and academic standing and meet certain playing requirements.
