ROCK HILL, SC—Winthrop senior libero Sarah Mae Billingsley has capped her collegiate career by being voted to the 2004 ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America Team joining 17 other players from NCAA Division I schools to be so honored.
Billingsley, a native of Overland Park, Kansas and now a resident of Cedar Park, Texas, was voted to the six-woman third team and joins former Eagle standout Jennifer Pritchard as the second Winthrop volleyball student-athlete to be chosen an Academic All-America in the past three years.
She has compiled a 3.79 grade point average while majoring in mathematics and playing an integral part in Winthrop’s third straight Big South Conference championship and school-record season of 31 wins and a third consecutive NCAA tournament appearance.
“This is a huge honor,” says Billingsley, who was also voted to the All-Big South Conference team for a second time this season. “This honor not only recognizes academic achievement, but it also recognizes the time and effort that I have put in on the court.”
Billingsley started in all 128 games for the Eagles in 2004 and broke her own school record for defensive digs in a season finishing with 563 and an average of 4.40 digs per game. She started in all 258 games as an Eagle after transferring from Southwest Missouri State-West Plains where she helped lead that school to the 2001 National Junior College runner-up spot.
In addition to Billingsley’s athletic prowess, she has been recognized four semesters on the Winthrop Dean’s List and is a two-time Big South Conference Presidential Scholar and a member of the 2004 Big South Conference All-Academic Team. She was recognized last May as the recipient of the Rock Hill Orthopaedic Endowed Scholarship for being a positive, supportive and consistent team leader.
Following graduation this May, Billingsley said she may pursue a career in the ministry with either Young Life or Athletes In Action (AIA). Billingsley says she would also like to continue her playing career for AIA in Europe.
She is the daughter of Mark and Shelley Billingsley and graduated from Shawnee Mission South H.S. in Overland Park, Kansas.
