Kendra Wait Wins BIG EAST Sport Excellence Award

NEW YORK - Creighton Volleyball setter Kendra Wait has been named a winner of a 2022-23 BIG EAST Sport Excellence Award, which recognizes academic and athletic achievement as well as community service.

The Sport Excellence Awards are given to one student-athlete in each BIG EAST-sponsored sport based on academic credentials, athletic accolades or performances and volunteer service to the community. Student-athletes who have attained junior academic standing and a minimum cumulative grade-point average of 3.00 are eligible. The winners are chosen by the BIG EAST Faculty Athletics Representative Council.

A rising junior from Gardner, Kan., Wait led the BIG EAST with 11.13 assists per set in 2022, good for 13th-best nationally. Directing an offense that ranked eighth nationally in kills per set, she was the nation's only player to average at least 11.00 assists and 3.00 digs per set in 2022. Wait is a two-time All-BIG EAST, All-East Region and Honorable Mention All-America choice. She was named All-Tournament Team at three different events last fall. She was also named a Second Team Academic All-American by College Sports Communicators, one of seven players in program history to be named an Academic All-American.

Wait is one of seven student-athlete recipients, as well as Georgetown's Julia Leas, Providence's Marcelo Rocha, Seton Hall's Cornelia Jerres and and Abigail Wingo and Xavier's Andrew Martin and Emma McMyler to boast an undergraduate GPA of 3.9 or higher. Villanova and Xavier led the way with four honorees each, while Georgetown and Seton Hall both had three recipients.

Wait is the seventh student-athlete during Creighton's 10 years in the BIG EAST to be recognized with a Sport Excellence Award, joining Billy Paluch (men's tennis, 2013-14), Fabian Herbers (men's soccer, 2015-16), Harrison Lang (men's tennis, 2016-17), Jaali Winters (volleyball, 2017-18), Taryn Kloth (volleyball, 2018-19) and Luke Haakenson (men's soccer, 2019-20).

While the format of the awards allows for only one declared winner in each sport category, the selection of the recipients proves each year to be a challenge for the FAR Council, as candidate nominees represent exceptional student-athletes who excel in academics, service, and athletics, and are outstanding representatives of their schools and the Conference.

2022-23 BIG EAST Sports Excellence Award Winners

Sport	Student-Athlete	Institution	Major	GPA $
Baseball	Jonathan Luders	Seton Hall	Psychology	3.794
Men's Basketball	Jack Nunge	Xavier	Accounting	3.350
Women's Basketball	Maddy Siegrist	Villanova	Communications	3.280
Men's Cross Country	Marcelo Rocha	Providence	Environmental Biology	3.980
Women's Cross Country	Maggie Donahue	Georgetown	Neurobiology	3.520
Men's Indoor Track & Field	Charlie O'Donovan	Villanova	Marketing	3.190
Women's Indoor Track & Field	Maya Drayton	Georgetown	Marketing	3.160
Men's Outdoor Track & Field	Barry Keane	Butler	Finance	3.205
Women's Outdoor Track & Field	Shannon Flockhart	Providence	Political Science	3.400
Field Hockey	Bethany Dykema	Liberty	Exercise Science	3.840
Men's Golf	Jack Simon	St. John's	Marketing	3.800
Women's Golf	Emma McMyler	Xavier	Actuarial Science	3.966
Men's Lacrosse	Matt Campbell	Villanova	Finance	3.490
Women's Lacrosse	Caroline Curnal	Villanova	Communications	3.390
Men's Soccer	Cole Jensen	Xavier	Sports Management	3.337
Women's Soccer	Julia Leas	Georgetown	Psychology	3.940
Softball	Abigail Wingo	Seton Hall	Marketing & Sports Management	3.975
Men's Swimming & Diving	Andrew Martin	Xavier	Marketing	3.947
Women's Swimming & Diving	Cornelia Jerresand	Seton Hall	Physics	3.985
Men's Tennis	Leon Huck	DePaul	Business Administration	3.563
Women's Tennis	Lenka Antonijevic	DePaul	Computer Science	3.847
Volleyball	Kendra Wait	Creighton	Nursing	4.000

$ - undergraduate GPA indicated only

Players Mentioned

Kendra Wait

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