Lunsford named to CoSIDA Academic All-America Third Team

AUSTIN, Texas – Bryant University volleyball senior Ally Lunsford (Minneola, Fla.) has been named to the CoSIDA Academic All-America Third Team, as announced Monday by the College Sports Information Directors of America.

Lunsford was one of 21 volleyball student-athletes throughout the Division I level to receive Academic All-America honors. The senior middle blocker holds a 4.0 GPA as an applied psychology major and was eligible for All-America status by being named to the Academic All-District team in November.

Lunsford was a solid presence in the middle in 2017 for Bryant, which won a Division I program-best 21 matches and its first Northeast Conference regular season co-championship. Lunsford recorded a team-best .295 hitting percentage while averaging 0.86 blocks per set on the year and 0.91 per set in NEC play.

With her selection to the Division I volleyball third team, Lunsford becomes the first player in program history to earn CoSIDA Academic All-America distinction. Lunsford is the second Bryant student-athlete named an Academic All-America honoree in the Division I era, joining baseball's Kevin Brown in 2013, and the seventh in Bryant's overall history.