ROCK HILL, S.C. -- Winthrop University volleyball student-athlete Avery Jolley has been voted the 2025-26 Big South Conference Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year, the conference office has announced on Tuesday morning. 

Jolley is the first back-to-back female athlete winner since 2005-07, and the Eagles first ever back-to-back winner. 

Jolley earned College Sports Communicators (CSC) Academic All-America Third Team honors this past season, the Big South's first volleyball Academic All-American since 2020-21.  The 2025 Big South Volleyball Player of the Year was a 2026 Big South Christenberry Award winner for Academic Excellence, as she graduated with a 4.00 in Business Administration to earn back-to-back Volleyball Scholar-Athlete of the Year honors.  Jolley wrapped up a historic 2025 season by earning AVCA All-America Honorable Mention honors, making her just the second Eagle in program history to receive the distinction.  She also picked up AVCA All-Region recognition and became the just the second volleyball student-athlete in Big South history to receive both All-America honors and Academic All-America distinction in the same season.  A member of Winthrop's Honors College, Jolley helped the Eagles win a share of the Big South regular season championship this past season.  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.  Her season-long performance was recognized with spots on the Winthrop Invitational and Furman Invitational All-Tournament Teams -- along with four Big South Player of the Week awards.  In 25 matches played overall in 2025, Jolley posted 380 kills (3.76 per set), 27 service aces (0.27), 430.5 points (4.26), 262 digs (2.59) and 42 total blocks. 

High Point men's soccer player Josh Caron (Palm Harbor, Fla.) is the Male Scholar-Athlete of the Year recipient, it was announced today by the league office.  The annual Scholar-Athletes of the Year are voted on by the Big South Athletic Communications Directors from a pool of each sport's Scholar-Athlete winner during the past season. 

The Big South Male and Female Scholar-Athletes of the Year are selected from a pool of each sport's Scholar-Athlete of the Year winners announced during the regular season.  In the women's voting, Jolley finished with 38 points (six first-place votes), followed by Radford women's golfer Macy Johnson (20 points) and High Point cross country/track runner Brianna Malone (20 points, one first-place vote).  On the men's side, Caron finished with 36 points (four first-place votes), ahead of Longwood golfer Hunter Swidzinski (32 points, three first-place votes) and Winthrop basketball player Kody Clouet (28 points, two first-place votes).