ST. LOUIS, Mo. -- Senior Alise Tupuritis (Des Plaines, Ill./Maine West) was named a First-Team Missouri Valley Conference Scholar-Athlete, while fellow seniors Amy Angelos (Waukegan, Ill./Waukegan) and Lauren Zerante (Elmhurst, Ill./York) both earned honorable mention honors according to announcement by the league office Tuesday.
Tupuritis is the first Bradley volleyball player to earn First-Team Valley Scholar-Athlete honors since Jenna Harrison did so in 2007 and the Braves had three scholar-athlete honorees for the first time since the 2003 campaign.
A health science major with a 3.50 cumulative grade point average, Tupuritis is Bradley's most recent member of the 1,000 kill-club. She notched her 1,000th career kill in Saturday's five-set win at Drake to help Bradley lock up the team's first appearance in the Valley Tournament since 2005. One of 10 individuals in program history with 1,000 career kills and 600 career digs, she has led the team in kills back-to-back seasons and is second on the team this fall with 306 kills.
Tupuritis has 13 double-doubles in 2013 for the most by a Bradley individual since Lindsay Stalzer had 19 in 2005. The first Brave with 300 kills and 300 digs in a season since 2006, she is one of three players to rank in the top 15 in the league in both kills and digs per set. Tupuritis is 11th in school history in kills with 1,004 and needs 25 kills to break into Bradley's top 10.
A hospitality leadership major with a 3.27 cumulative grade point average, Angelos is one of four players in school history to have 250 or more kills in each of their four seasons on The Hilltop. She is currently eighth in Bradley history with 1,121 kills and enters this week's MVC Tournament needing seven blocks to reach 300 for her career. Angelos would be just the fourth player in school history with 1,100 career kills, 40 aces and 300 blocks.
Angelos is one of two players to rank in the top 10 in the MVC in both hitting percentage and kills per set this fall. She currently leads the team with 312 kills and 70 blocks despite missing two matches this season due to injury. Her career attack percentage of .265 is third among Bradley career marks and she needs 44 kills to move into the top seven in career kills at BU.
Zerante is a marketing major with a 3.63 cumulative grade point average. The only player in school history to have 450 or more digs in two seasons, she ranks third in the MVC with a 5.02 digs-per-set average in 2013. Her 527 digs this fall is fourth among Bradley season marks and she needs just 12 digs for the highest season dig total by a Bradley individual since 1985.
Currently fifth in career digs at Bradley with 1,327, Zerante is three digs from moving into the top four in program history and is only 20 out of the top three. She owns two of the top three single match dig totals in school history and was named the MVC Defensive Player of the Week back on Sept. 3.
In order to be nominated for MVC Scholar-Athlete honors, individuals must be at least a sophomore in academic and athletic standing, own a 3.20 cumulative grade point average and played in at least 75% of their team's regular-season matches.
Bradley is the #6 seed in this week's Missouri Valley Conference Tournament in Wichita, Kan. The Braves will face #3 seed Southern Illinois Thursday at 5 p.m. in the opening round.
