Nov. 20, 2007

CENTER VALLEY, Pa. -- First-Team All-Patriot League performer and U.S. Naval Academy Bowman Scholar Rachel Dougherty (Sr., Derwood, Md.) was selected as the Patriot League Scholar-Athlete of the Year for the sport of volleyball, it was announced Tuesday by the league office.

Dougherty becomes the first Navy volleyball player to win the award since the Midshipmen joined the Patriot League in 1991.

"This is a wonderful award for both Rachel and our program," said Navy head coach Mike Schwob. "In looking at the exceptional candidates from the other member schools, it was obvious that this had to be a challenging decision. I think the qualifications of everyone placed onto the ballot accurately demonstrates what tremendous scholar-athletes our league has to offer, and also shows how much of an honor this is for Rachel."

On the court this year, Dougherty set Navy single season records with 500 kills and a 4.50 kills-per-game average. In addition to ranking second in the league and 48th nationally in kills per game, she also ranks among the league (second) and NCAA leaders (28th) with a 0.55 service aces-per-game average. Her service ace average this season ranks fourth in school history, while her total of 60 aces is tied for fourth place.

One of five players during Navy's 17-year Division I era to tally 1,000 career kills, Dougherty ended her playing days ranked fifth in school history with 1,137 career kills and tied for fourth place with 274 career blocks.

She was selected as the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference Player of the Week once this season and twice was tabbed as the Patriot League Player of the Week. The first of her two latter awards came following a week in which she totaled 16 kills against Bucknell on a Friday night, took the GRE exam Saturday morning and knocked down 22 kills in a Saturday afternoon match against Colgate.

Academically, Dougherty has posted a 4.00 grade-point average during four of her six completed semesters at Navy and carries a 3.89 cumulative GPA as a physics major. She was one of 15 members of Navy's senior class selected as a Bowman Scholar for the 2007-08 academic year. This award provides her with the opportunity to attend the Naval Postgraduate School and allows her to receive early admission into the Navy's nuclear surface warfare community. One of the requirements for the scholar program is her completion of an independent study project this year, the title and subject of which is Isotopic Information from Proton Induced Gamma Ray Emission Measurements.

Dougherty recently earned ESPN the Magazine First-Team Academic All-District II honors from the College Sports Information Directors of America for the second-straight year. By garnering first-team all-district accolades, she is currently appearing on the national ballot for the Academic All-America program run by CoSIDA.