Volleyball Standout Avery Jolley Repeats as Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year (07/23/26)

HIGHLIGHTS

• The Knoxville, Tennessee, resident is the first back-to-back female scholar winner since 2005-07, and the Eagles' first back-to-back winner.
• Other honors for Jolley included the 2025 Big South Volleyball Player of the Year and the Big South Christenberry Award winner for Academic Excellence. She graduated in December 2025 with a 4.0 in business administration with a concentration in healthcare management.

CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA - Winthrop University volleyball standout Avery Jolley '25 has been voted for the second year in a row as the Big South Conference Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year.

The Big South Conference made the announcement July 21 after Big South athletic communications directors voted from a pool of each sport's Scholar-Athlete winner during the past season.

The Knoxville, Tennessee, resident is the first back-to-back female scholar winner since 2005-07, and the Eagles' first back-to-back winner. In 2024-25, Jolley and Brianna Malone, a track and field athlete from High Point, shared the honor. Jolley is the lone selection for the 2025-26 season.

The 2025 Big South Volleyball Player of the Year was selected as a Big South Christenberry Award winner for Academic Excellence this spring, as she graduated in December 2025 with a 4.0 in business administration with a concentration in healthcare management. She also earned back-to-back Volleyball Scholar-Athlete of the Year honors.

Jolley wrapped up a historic 2025 season last fall by earning AVCA All-Region and All-America Honorable Mention honors - becoming just the second volleyball student-athlete in Big South history to receive both All-America honors and Academic All-America distinction in the same year.

A member of Winthrop's Honors College, Jolley helped the Eagles win a share of the Big South regular season championship. She tied the program's single-match kills record with 30 and surpassed 1,000 career kills. Jolley finished the 14-match conference slate with 227 kills for 3.98 per set, also slotting in second in the conference with 4.46 points per set.

This fall, Jolley will attend the Northeastern University School of Law in Boston, Massachusetts.

For more information, contact Brett Redden of Winthrop Athletics at [email protected].