ST. JOSEPH, Minn. – At the NCAA Championship banquet in Cedar Rapids, Hunter Weiss was recognized for having the top GPA amongst the athletes competing in the Elite 8. Earlier that week, she earned All-American First Team honors for her dominant season at the net.
 
Wednesday, Weiss earned another award for both her academic and athletic success in her junior season, putting her in an elite class in Division III women's volleyball.
 
Weiss, a biology major with a 4.0 GPA, earned CoSIDA Academic All-American First Team honorees, it was announced Wednesday afternoon by CoSIDA. The outside hitter for the College of Saint Benedict volleyball team was one of seven Division III women's volleyball players to earn first-team accolades, and she is one of two juniors on the elite first-team list.
 
Weiss' honor marks the first Academic All-American honoree for the CSB volleyball program since Robyn Ruschmeier in 1998, and the first first-team honoree since Christy Molitor in 1997. Weiss is CSB's first first-team honoree in any sport since basketball's Laura Wendorff in 1999-00, and just the 10^th CoSIDA Academic All-American First Team honoree in Saint Benedict athletics history. She is the first Academic All-American for the athletic department since Allison Kosobud earned third-team honors in track and field and cross country in 2017.
 
Calvin's Sarah DeVries – who was also named the Division III Player of the Year – earned Academic All-American Team Member of the Year. Also on the first team are Carthage's Megan Behrendt, Otterbein's Tate Eppard, Ohio Northern's Chelsea Huppert, Case Western's Karley King and Johns Hopkins' Louisa Kishton. Four of the seven first-team honorees also earned Academic All-American honors in 2018. Weiss and St. Thomas' Ellie Meyer – who earned a third-team nod – are the only two MIAC athletes on the three Academic All-American teams.
 
Weiss finished her junior season ranked 10^th in the nation with a .396 hitting percentage, and in the top 31 with 428 total kills. She also finished the year 16^th in Division III with 123 total blocks. In three seasons with the program, Weiss has 1,170 kills – good for ninth in CSB history – to go along with 335 total blocks and a .329 hitting percentage.
 
Weiss is the first CSB volleyball player to earn AVCA All-American First Team honors and CoSIDA Academic All-American First Team honors in the same season since Chris Muehlbauer in 1991. The Academic All-American honor joins an impressive list of honors Weiss received in 2019, including MIAC Player of the Year, AVCA Central Region Player of the Year, First Team All-American and NCAA Elite 90 Division III women's volleyball award winner.