“Joan Cronan used to tell us the only place ‘athlete’ came before ‘student’ is in the dictionary. The older I get, the more I understand what she was teaching us as student-athletes,” head coach Alison Ojeda said. “What we do while we are here at the University of Tennessee is use sport to teach so many life lessons. In order to win at anything, you need to learn. I am so proud that we are winning in the classroom.”
The seven individuals recognized were Tenika McGiffin, Kylie Duckworth, Callie Creath, Olivia Symons, Esther Adeshina, Eleonora Molinaro and Rebeka Mertena. To be eligible for the Scholar-Athlete honors, these student-athletes needed to attain a GPA of 3.50 or higher while earning a varsity letter during the 2021-22 school year.
Tennessee now has had 22 individuals receive Scholar-Athlete recognition since the 2019-20 season. In the eight years prior to the current three-year stretch, the Lady Vols had 23 honorees.
The Lady Vols also posted a team GPA of 3.57 for 2021-22, earning the ITA All-Academic Team distinction for the 11th time as a program. The Lady Vols have achieved the honor five times in the six years Ojeda has led the program.
ITA All-Academic Team accolades are awarded to teams where the cumulative GPA is 3.2 or higher. All varsity letter winners are factored into the cumulative team GPA for the current academic year (fall 2021 and spring 2022).
It has been a strong offseason for academic awards as McGiffin earned CoSIDA Academic All-District and All-America honors in June, becoming the first Lady Vol to do so in 15 years.
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