Three Tulsa Student-Athletes Earn 2024 AAC Scholar-Athlete of the Year Awards
7/10/2024 12:57:00 PM | Tulsa Hurricane, Academics
IRVING, Texas — The American Athletic Conference announced the league's Scholar-Athlete of the Year recipients, one per sport, for the 2023-24 academic year.
Volleyball's Kayley Cassaday, women's outdoor track and field's Chloe Hershenow and rowing's Isabella Musollino are this year's Tulsa recipients. It marks the fifth consecutive year that Tulsa has had at least three AAC scholar-athlete award winners.
Each of the scholar-athlete award winners, as selected by the league's Faculty Athletic Representatives, will receive a post-graduate and post-eligibility scholarship of $2,000 and a trophy.
In the 10-year history of Tulsa's membership in The American, a total of 33 Golden Hurricane student-athletes have now been recognized as their sports' recipient of the scholar-athlete of the year award.
2023-24 Academic All-American and American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) All-American Kayley Cassaday was named the scholar-athlete award winner for volleyball. She earned her bachelor's and master's degrees in mechanical engineering from TU with a 4.0 grade point average.
A 5-11 outside hitter from Overland Park, Kansas, Cassaday enjoyed a spectacular finish to her career in the fall, leading the Golden Hurricane to an 18-15 record and second-round run in the National Invitational Volleyball Championship (NIVC) Tournament. She led the nation with 632 kills and 1,757 attacks, ranked second for attacks per set (14.28) and tied for second kills per set (5.14). Cassaday recorded double figure kills in all but one match and had 20+ kills in 11 matches and 30+ kills one time in 2023. She signed her first professional contract in May with Vandoeuvre Nancy Volleyball in France.
Chloe Hershenow, the women's outdoor track & field recipient, is a 4.0 graduate student in mechanical engineering. The St. Louis product was a three-time American Athletic Conference individual champion in both the indoor and outdoor 5,000-meter runs as well as the outdoor 10,000-meters this past season. She concluded the year ranked 10th in the Midwest Region in the indoor 5,000-meters (16:19.84), 37th in the indoor mile (4:48.19), 40th in the indoor 3,000-meters (9:34.72) and placed 41st in the NCAA Cross Country Midwest Regional 6K (23:34.6).
Three-time Collegiate Rowing Coaches of America (CRCA) National Scholar-Athlete Isabella Musollino, a native of Poughquag, N.Y., maintained a 3.90 GPA while double majoring in Media Studies and Political Science. She is the third Tulsa rower to win the honor in the seven years of the award. Musollino coxed TU's 1st Varsity 8 to a first-place finish in the American Athletic Conference Championship, which was later named the conference Boat of the Year.
2023-24 Tulsa's AAC Scholar-Athlete Award Winners
Kayley Cassaday – Volleyball
Chloe Hershenow – Women's Outdoor Track and Field
Isabella Musollino – Rowing
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