IRVING, Texas -- Three players from the eighth-ranked Texas volleyball team earned Academic All-Big 12 honors for the 2006 season, the conference announced Tuesday.
Junior setter Michelle Moriarty was a first-team performer, while senior outside hitter Dariam Acevedo and sophomore middle blocker Lauren Paolini were second-team performers.
Student-athletes with sophomore standing or higher must have a grade point average above 3.20 to qualify for first-team recognition, while players with a 3.00 to 3.19 GPA qualify as second-team honorees. Nominated by each institution's director of student-athlete support services and media relations offices, the volleyball academic all-league team consisted of 42 first-team members combined with eight on the second team.
Moriarty, an education major from Houston, was voted to the ESPN The Magazine CoSIDA Academic All-Region 6 Second Team earlier this season, earning all-region honors for the second consecutive year. The award is the second Academic All-Big 12 First Team selection of her career.
Acevedo, a kinesiology major from Trujillo Alto, Puerto Rico, was a second-team academic all-district honoree in 2005 and earned Big 12 first-team accolades her sophomore and junior seasons.
Paolini, a liberal arts major from Ann Arbor, Mich., earned her first-career academic honor.
Moriarty, Acevedo and Paolini and the rest of the Longhorns return to action on Wednesday, Nov. 15, when they travel to Kansas State in a 7 p.m. match at Ahearn Field House.
