ROCK HILL, SC– Winthrop volleyball senior Pohai Nu'uhiwa is one of four student-athletes who were honored by the Big South Conference today with the prestigious George A. Christenberry Award for Academic Excellence.
Nu'uhiwa (pronounced noo-who-He-vah), was the 2007 Big South Conference Volleyball Scholar-Athlete of the Year and a two-time All-Big South selection as a defensive specialist. She will graduate this Saturday with a perfect 4.0 grade point average while majoring in early childhood education. She has achieved an unusual feat by earning her degree in just three years.
She shares the award with Coastal Carolina’s Felicitas Mensing (women’s cross country/track), Radford’s Cassandra Price (women’s tennis), and VMI’s Kevin Sullivan (men’s track). The Christenberry Award is given annually to one male student-athlete and one female student-athlete who attain the highest GPA during their college careers and are graduates of a member institution during the past year. In case of ties, as happened this year, additional awards are provided. Mensing (mathematics) and Price (business administration/ international finance) are also graduating with perfect 4.0 GPAs while Sullivan (computer science) compiled a 3.987 GPA.
Nu’uhiwa helped Winthrop win two Big South regular-season titles and one tournament championship during her tenure with the Eagles. The libero earned Second-team All-Conference honors in 2006 and was a First-team selection in 2007. She ranked second in the Big South in digs per game this past season with 5.18, while posting a League-high and school record 622 digs.
A Big South All-Tournament team honoree in 2006 and 2007, Nu’uhiwa set a school record for digs in a three-game match with 26 at Davidson on Sept. 18, and established a Winthrop record for digs in a four-game match with 34 against East Carolina on Aug. 26. She entered Winthrop’s 1,000-dig club in just two seasons on the squad, and her 1,108 career digs rank seventh all-time in Winthrop history.
Nu’uhiwa was named to the President’s List three times at Winthrop and is a two-time Big South Presidential Honor Roll member. She also was active in Winthrop’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee during her career and received the 2008 Senior Academic Award from Winthrop for achieving the highest cumulative grade point average for a graduating senior female student-athlete.
The League honor is named for George A. Christenberry, the former President of Augusta College (now Augusta State University) and one of the founders of the Big South Conference. A member of the Big South Hall of Fame, Christenberry served as the League’s first President from 1983-86. It is the fifth time in the last six years that more than two student-athletes have been so honored.
“The Christenberry Award is the highest academic honor awarded to Big South student-athletes,” said Big South Conference Commissioner Kyle B. Kallander. “We congratulate Felicitas, Cassandra, Pohai and Kevin for their accomplishments in the classroom and on the field of play. Their careers truly exemplify the highest ideals of the Big South Conference.”
