(December 3, 2007 - Ann Arbor, Mich.) -- Four members of the Concordia volleyball team followed up one of the more successful seasons in over a decade by being named for the excellence of the court as members of the 2007 Volleyball Daktronics-NAIA Scholar Athlete team. Seniors Stephanie Weiss (Frankenmuth, Mich.) and Erin Walczak (DeWitt, Mich.) were joined by juniors Erica Manning (St. Johns, Mich.) and Amanda Taylor (Loves Park, Ill.) on the list most commonly referred to as Academic All-American.

 

For Weiss and Walczak, the honor was their second, while Manning and Taylor are first-time recipients of the award.

 

For the Concordia program, only one other team in the Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference earned more selections as Indiana Tech finished with five selections to the Cardinals four. 

 

Within the Concordia University System, where five of the universities operate under the national governance of the NAIA, no other Concordia registered more than the Ann Arbor squad. Equally impressive is that with the announcement of the four volleyball honorees, 11 different athletes have been awarded the academic distinction this year, closing in on last season's record-setting year of 13 total recipients. The last two year's have seen the most athletes honored for academic excellence than any other two years in the history of Concordia-Ann Arbor.

 

This past season, the Cardinals finished with a 19-24 record - the highest win total in a decade and the fourth highest win total in the history of the program.

 

On the court, Walczak has finished her career with the all-time record for block assists in a season after posting 105 this past season, besting Sarah Riske's 1994 mark of 72.  Walczak is currently ranked 8th in career kills, 11th in career aces, 10th in career solo blocks,and  2nd in career block assists.

 

Weiss, who for three years was the team's setter before accepting a switch to defensive specialist this season, is currently ranked twice in the top ten for assists in a season (7th - 1110 - 2005 and 10 - 935 - 2006) and finishes her career second all-time in two categories: career aces (171) and career assists (3,032). Weiss is also sixth all-time for career digs with a total of 1,287.

 

Manning is also moving up the charts as she is 8th all-time for solo blocks with 62 and 4th all-time in block assists with 133. Taylor would have had the second best season in regard to block assists with her total of 70 had it not been for the explosive season Walczak had. Nonetheless, Taylor's first year has her with the third best total in a season.