AUSTIN, Texas -- Alaska Anchorage volleyball star Eve Stephens added yet another major honor to her outstanding 2022 season Wednesday, becoming the first player in program history to be voted First Team Academic All-American by the College Sports Communicators.

A unanimous first-team All-American and the D2CCA Ron Lenz National Player of the Year, Stephens is one of three Seawolves ever to be selected a CSC Academic All-American, along with third-team honorees Meganne Hendricks (1988) and Janelle Veith (2001).  She also becomes the first repeat winner, having earned third-team honors in 2021.

Along with her on-court heroics, the Palmer (Colony HS) native produced a 3.91 overall grade-point average in accounting and graduated with magna cum laude honors last week. She is a three-time CSC Academic All-District and four-time Great Northwest Athletic Conference All-Academic Team honoree as well.

The unanimous Great GNAC Player of the Year and NCAA Div. II West Region Player of the Year, Stephens ranked second nationally with 5.78 points per set and third with 4.75 kills per set, along with top-50 national marks of 0.53 aces per set and .351 attack percentage. She led the GNAC in kills by 1.25 per set and points by 1.75 per set, while ranking fifth in attack percentage, 15th in blocks (0.85 bps) and 19th in digs (2.59).
 
Stephens was a seven-time GNAC Player of the Week and two-time AVCA National Player of the Week this season, helping UAA to a 27-3 record, the GNAC title and No. 1 West Region seed. She had double-digit kills in all but two matches (in which she had nine), including a UAA rally-scoring era record 33 kills in a four-set road win over No. 10 Western Washington. The rightside hitter finished as the GNAC and UAA all-time leader in points (2,292.5) and kills (1,926), while also placing top 5 on UAA's career lists for points per set (1st, 4.69), kills per set (2nd, 3.94), attack percentage (5th, .296), aces (3rd, 152), block assists (3rd, 361), sets played (4th, 489), matches played (4th, 132) and victories (5th, 99).