Competitive Spirit Award - Valentina Rubio
Perseverance Award - Julia Schutz
Impact Award - Grace Barresi
Leadership Award - Lydia Alexander
Mary Fran Meekison '40 Service Award - Georgie Kersman
Donald Miller Belles Spirit Award - Emma Zmudzinski
Mary Ellen Smith Academic and Athletic Achievement Award - Katelyn Tokarz
Marvin Wood Outstanding Senior Athlete Award - Alayna Campbell
For a full video replay of the 2025 Senior Athlete Awards ceremony, watch the event on our YouTube channel here.
Competitive Spirit Award - Valentina Rubio
Presented to the senior athlete who demonstrates the passion and love for sport by work ethic, desire to succeed, and commitment to teammates.
Injuries, especially season-ending injuries, often kill the competitive drive of even the best student-athletes; but, to be presented “season-ending” injuries twice to the same student-athlete, it often results in the completion of an athletic career...unless your name is Valentina Rubio.
Mark Twain once said, “It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog”. Val has demonstrated that she has more fight in her than the average athlete by continuing to come back smarter, faster, and stronger from each obstacle. Our first glimpse of Val’s competitive spirit at work was shared with us at our fall Why We Play event. At Why We Play, our presenters share the story of their journey through sport. We learned from Val that her lacrosse journey started her freshman year in high school when she joined the team with little-to-no knowledge of the sport. We also learned that just a few games into that first season, she suffered a season-ending injury by fully tearing her ACL, meniscus, and lateral meniscus – an injury not easy to come back from! While this was not a very welcoming introduction to this new sport, there was something about this sport that really ignited a passion in her; and, to the surprise of her high school coaches, that was enough fuel for her to return to a game she barely knew. To her own surprise, she continued to play the sport that she grew to love in high school all the way through college.
To see competitive spirit in action, one only needs to attend a Saint Mary’s lacrosse game and watch how Val plays the game. Returning from a second surgery leading into this senior season, she is the one with the knee brace. She is the one that when there is an injury on the field and players are instructed to “take a knee”, she can’t fully bend hers – so, Val’s stance is more of a straddle. But, when the ball is in play, nothing holds her back. She is an offensive threat! It does not matter how many obstacles block her path. With Val’s speed and agility, she finds a new route to the goal to score. At Senior Day, after just recently being released for full play from surgery, Val scored a career high of six goals. On the other end of the field, she is just as much of a threat as an amazing defender. She has caused 121 turnovers and has claimed over 200 ground balls. Val plays the entire field and she plays it well! In her career, she
has been both a 1st Team and 2nd Team All-MIAA honoree. She is a recognized force within our league!
But, Val is so much more than her stats and awards. When she is not on the field, her presence is still felt, or should I say “heard”. No one can ever accuse Val of being a quiet player! Her competitive drive lifts her team. She makes others better through her inspirational play, her work ethic, and her leadership. Her demonstrated grit and determination to compete are the personification of this award.
A native of Wayland, Michigan, Valentina is the daughter of Ester and Juan Rubio. She will graduate with a degree in psychology with minors in Business Administration and Fashion and Costume Design. We are proud to present the 2025 Competitive Spirit Award to Valentina Rubio.
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Perseverance Award - Julia Schutz
Presented to the senior student-athlete who has continued to show unwavering resilience and determination in response to adversity.
So many life lessons are learned through sport because it is through sport, that athletes are afforded the opportunity to experience adversity. As an athlete, facing adversity you have two choices: give up or get up. Julia Schutz chose to get up.
“Getting up” is not that easy. Especially, when year after year, something sets you back. In Julia’s four-year career, she has missed the equivalent of nearly a full season of basketball due to injury and/or illness. Sidelined so many times, it is difficult to stay connected and even more difficult to find your fit. You have to try that much harder to make it back on the floor – that much harder to find your role. You need to be a grinder.
In sports, “grinding” describes a process that encompasses a person’s resolve to push through injury, illness, or whatever the obstacle. Athletes who grind, keep their heads up and use their competitive spirit as fuel to push through. They are resolved to persevere and find a way to get back on the floor; but, for grinders, it is more than just getting back on the floor for themselves. It is about being there for their team. They care about contributing and competing because they are also driven by their love of team. While sidelined, they still find a way to bring energy to their team to keep them pumped. They are there for their teammates to lift them when down and celebrate them when they are up to keep the momentum in our favor. They are competitors. Julia personifies the term and is the heart and soul of this basketball team.
Watching Julia on the sideline, she is animated and loud. She is in every moment with her teammates. When watching her on the floor, she is a presence to be reckoned with! Julia is someone, on or off the floor, that our team looks to for answers. She brings the energy and is a force as she drives to the boards often plowing through numerous defenders to score. Simply, she plays like a player that understands that every minute one gets to play is a gift.
In her athletic career as a Belle, this two-time team captain scored nearly 1000 points. Julia has played in 79 games and averaged 12.3 points per game. She has had 554 total rebounds and 107 assists. She scored a career high this year against Lake Forest with 32 points and 17 rebounds. Julia has been named a Saint Mary’s College Athlete of the Week seven times over these past four years. Julia has balanced her athletic success with strong academic success. She has a cumulative 3.9 GPA and has earned Dean’s List honors for seven consecutive semesters. At the end of this year, she will have earned Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MIAA) Honor Roll all four years.; and, she has been named twice to the College Sports Communicator (CSC) Academic All-district team.
A native of Dyer, Indiana Julia is the daughter of Tim and Kathleen Schutz. She will graduate with a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry. We are proud to present the 2025 Perseverance Award to Julia Schutz.
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Impact Award - Grace Barresi
Presented to the senior athlete who elevates the intensity and focus of a game beyond what statistics can measure.
The Belles soccer program had gone through its share of ups and downs over the past decade. During this time there was not much tangible success on the scoreboard despite having some talented athletes. With the most recent coaching change, a core group of athletes were bought into the new direction of the program and motivated to get it on a winning track; however, the program still needed the right kind of player to show up for lasting impact to be realized.
Enter Grace Barresi. Grace started her collegiate career playing soccer for Kent State. Even as a first year, Grace not only played as a first-year student-athlete in this DI program, but she also started every game for that team. At the end of her freshman season, she was named to the NCAA MAC All-Freshman Team; but, all of this was not enough to keep her there. She wanted to be a little closer to home and friends as well as to find a program with a good team culture. So, she started exploring her options and found Saint Mary’s College.
Grace’s mid-year arrival to Saint Mary’s amidst a team leadership change proved to be the right combination to redirect the trajectory of our soccer program! She made an immediate impact both on and off the field. She was a fit! It is not easy to transfer. There is a lot to figure out academically, socially, and athletically. Grace blended in so naturally with the school and her teammates that you would never know she was a transfer. Friendships formed and she jumped right in to pursuing her degree in biology with a focus on the pre-physician’s assistant pathway. It was exciting to imagine what the fall season would look like with Grace on the team!
The new coach was in place. New philosophy. Additional new and talented players were joining the squad. The Belles were ready. As players were being assessed and positions determined, Grace’s position was assigned: the soccer field. Cover the whole thing. And, she did.
From the second she stepped onto the Belles pitch she started every game. She made an impact defensively and offensively. Midfielders play a crucial role on the team. They are charged with controlling the tempo of the game and creating scoring opportunities for their team. They need to take charge and lead. They need to be fit as it is the midfielders that often travel the greatest distances during a game. Grace was perfect for the task. She took responsibility for her fitness and never failed to come in prepared for the job. She is an intense competitor that raised the level of play. She demands a lot of herself and plays to win.
With Grace, the style of play changed for Belle’s soccer. It was more intense and more competitive. This, in turn, drew in more competitive players. The bar had been lifted. The program started changing. Grace Barresi’s impact on this change cannot be understated. A memorable play illustrating Grace’s impact came in her goal against Kalamazoo College this past season. It was the first time we have scored against Kalamazoo in ten years and first time we beat them in eleven years. We defeated Kalamazoo 1-0. This past season, Grace also led our team to postseason competition – our first appearance in the conference tournament since 2008! And despite suffering an ACL tear toward the end of the season, she was still recognized by the league and earned 2nd Team All-MIAA honors. With her injury, she did not get to compete in that last game that she had strived so hard to get to; but this senior captain was right there with her team to the end leading and cheering them on from the sidelines.
A native of South Elgin, Illinois, Grace is the daughter of Jay and Christine Barresi. She will graduate with a Bachelor of Science in Biology. We are proud to present the 2025 Impact Award to Grace Barresi.
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Leadership Award - Lydia Alexander
Presented to the senior student-athlete with outstanding leadership, commitment, and dedication.
The most critical part of anything that we build is the foundation. You need the right materials – strong and solid. They must shoulder a lot of weight to withstand the test of time. As the building takes shape and grows upward, it often goes unseen; but the foundation cannot be forgotten - for it is in good foundations that great buildings emerge.
Sport programs, like buildings, need strong foundations - this is especially true for first year programs. You need the right people in the right places and at this critical time in the building of our STUNT program, we needed Lydia Alexander. Lydia is a key building block in the STUNT team’s foundation. She leads by example. She is that rock of consistency who is quick to welcome her teammates, no matter the time of day or the situation at hand. She has a smile that radiates passion and unwavering positive energy. Her leadership has served as a base to build their program upon. Her examples and interactions have personified the team’s core values of: sisterhood, dedication, integrity, passion and faith.
Lydia is a senior captain on the STUNT team. Her last year as a Saint Mary’s student was her first opportunity to be a Belles varsity student-athlete. As a senior nursing major, others would say the time commitment and energy are not worth it. Not Lydia! If she did not like 6:00 a.m. practices, one would not know it. She showed up ready to learn new routines, hone her skills, and then head to clinicals. At practices, she gave it her all and practiced like she had years left rather than just weeks. She improved her performance so her team could improve theirs. The dedication and leadership that Lydia has brought to the program has led this young team all the way to the national tournament in its very first year!
It has been Lydia’s leadership and example that has cemented our foundation into a solid base. She is the glue of this team. She is the one that unifies us. She is the one to call the impromptu meeting on the bus to make the case for an ice cream stop. Lydia has put in the time to build the sisterhood with her teammates and coaches. They know how much she cares about them. In STUNT especially, one cannot overlook the importance of sisterhood. Teammates must trust one another and know they can depend on each other as they are literally supporting and catching each other from great heights. Solid, caring relationships are critical in the building blocks to this structure.
STUNT is in “emerging sport status” for the NCAA. Lydia had given our team a jumpstart in demonstrating what an NCAA Division III student-athlete looks like as a model for them to follow. She has shown that full immersion in their college experience is possible. Lydia is committed to her faith and is a member of Friends with Sisters. She has been active for four years with Dance Marathon helping to raise thousands of dollars for Riley’s Children’s Hospital. She has also served in a leadership capacity with Dance Marathon as their vice president of communications. And somehow, as a nursing major, she fit in a semester studying abroad in Seville, Spain.
Athletically, Lydia has excelled. She leads in routines played and is our highest ranked player. The impact that Lydia has made through her talent and leadership in this one short year with the program cannot be overlooked. As great foundations do, Lydia has made strong connections and laid solid anchors that will enable this program to grow to great
heights.
A native of Dayton, Ohio, Lydia is the daughter of Ed and Laura Alexander. She will graduate with a bachelor of science in nursing. We are proud to present the 2025 Leadership Award to Lydia Alexander.
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Mary Fran Meekison '40 Service Award - Georgie Kersman
Presented to the senior student-athlete for her extraordinary service to Saint Mary's College and the local communities.
Saint Mary's College Athletic Hall of Fame inductee Mary Fran Shaff Meekison graduated in 1940 – well before women had even close to the competitive opportunities that we enjoy today. As a student, she was a recipient of the Helen Holland Voll Trophy for athletic ability and character. After graduation, she remained dedicated to the Saint Mary's community as she served as a faithful class reporter for over sixty years and was a member of the Alumnae Board. In 1991, President William Hickey awarded her the prestigious President's Medal for her outstanding community service and contributions to Saint Mary's.
Much like Mary Fran, senior golfer Georgie Kersman, has demonstrated a deep commitment to service. Georgie has been a very involved student-athlete! She has competed for four years on our golf team; and this year, she served as a team captain. In fact, much of Georgie’s service has been worked through her leadership. Since her sophomore year, she has been a representative on our Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC). She started as a golf team representative her first year. The next year, she was voted in as vice president. And then, this past year she served as our president. The Saint Mary’s SAAC is not only an advisory council, but they also have oversight on team service events. Georgie has rounded her team up to volunteer at the Food Bank of Northern Indiana for the past three years to package meals for children in the community. She has also volunteered and, through her SAAC leadership roles, she has helped to organize our National Girls and Women in Sports Day for the past four-years in which we offer free clinics for little girls ages six to twelve years old.
It is difficult to do justice to Georgie’s involvement around service in this one-page citation as the “Volunteer and Community Engagement” section of her C.V. combined with the “Leadership and Involvement” portions span nearly two pages! Just to offer an overview of her service and leadership that she has been involved over these past four-years:
● She has served as a volunteer tutor at La Casa de Amistad in South Bend during the spring semester of 2023.
● She has been a volunteer for the Early Childhood and Development Center on campus during the fall semester of 2024.
● Since the fall of 2023 to present, she has served on the Donor Challenge Student Committee. This introduces the importance of philanthropy to our students and encourages class participation in Saint Mary’s Donor Challenge.
● Georgie has served on the Student Government Association (SGA).From 2023 – 2024, she represented athletics as the Athletic Committee Chair.
● And finally, she has served as co-chair since last fall on the Sustainability and Food Services Committee at the College.
It is hard to fathom how Georgie has balanced all of this because, did I mention, she is also a student...studying neurobiology! Georgie has excelled in the classroom with a cumulative GPA of 3.87. She has earned Dean’s List honors each semester, MIAA Academic Honors each year, and is also a member of the TriBeta Honors Society. We are also very proud to share that Georgie is the recipient of the Dr. Todd Graham Research Fellowship. This fellowship opportunity will afford her great experience to prepare for her next step – medical school.
Georgie is that person who shows up and gets it done. She fits more in a day than many fit in a week. If Georgie is ever having a bad day, no one would know it. Where Georgie is, laughter follows. Just ask her golf team. Her great stories shared in the golf room are always told through laughter. She is an absolute joy to be around. With Georgie’s care, compassion, and perpetual positivity, her future patients are sure to thrive.
A native of Muskegon, Michigan, Georgie is the daughter of Park and Kasey Kersman. She will graduate with a Bachelor of Science in Neuroscience with a concentration in neurobiology. We are proud to present the 2025 Mary Fran Meekinson Service Award to Georgie Kersman.
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Donald Miller Belles Spirit Award - Emma Zmudzinski
Presented to the person who best exemplifies the winning spirit of the College's athletic program.
In 2008, the Belles Varsity Club Award was re-named the Don Miller Belles Spirit Award in his honor as a longtime math professor and assistant softball coach for the Belles. His life was taken too early by pancreatic cancer, but his legacy lives on through the many lives he touched both in the classroom and on the softball field. Coach Miller displayed true dedication and passion for Saint Mary's College and her Belles. This award is presented each year to the senior student-athlete who best exemplifies the winning spirit of the athletic program.
Chances are, if you have been new to the Saint Mary’s Athletics community in the last four years, you would have been greeted by Emma Zmudzinski. Lacrosse recruits, new athletic staff members, recruits from other teams, first year lacrosse players at move-in, anyone needing help at move-in ~ Emma is our version of a welcome wagon. She exudes Belles’ spirit because she loves Saint Mary’s. She is our walking-talking marketing tool! As the lacrosse team’s goalie, Emma’s winning spirit shines through in her dedication to improve her own game. In her freshman year, she played in nine games and started zero. These past three years, things have changed. Since then, she has been our starting goalie and is finishing her career with a save percentage of 44.1% and 398 saves in basically a three-year period. Emma’s outstanding work ethic, focus, and determination are key traits to her success in goal. Goalies come in all shapes and sizes. Some fill the goal leaving little open space. Not Emma. She has to cover more open space so she relies heavily on her fearless attitude and great reflexes! This is best illustrated in her game against Indiana Tech earlier this season when she earned her career high of 17 saves and went on to be named the MIAA Lacrosse Specialist of the week. This honor was well earned for her outstanding performance against this top ten nationally ranked NAIA team. It was beautiful to witness a team not used to those types of saves in the cage to have shot after shot denied by Emma.
Playing goalie can be a pretty lonely position. It is nice when it’s lonely because that means that your teammates are on attack about 110 yards away from you; but distance does not keep Emma’s presence from being felt. Our lacrosse team is known for being loud. Well, Emma is part of the reason for that too. One can hear her in goal at the other end of the field cheering on and talking to her teammates as she remains connected and in the game. She is always on the ready for the game to turn in her direction. When things do not go our way and the ball finds its way into goal, Emma is a class act. She always goes above and beyond to actually retrieve the ball and hand it directly to the officials rather than tossing it out in their general direction as many goalies do.
Emma is the embodiment of our culture and values. She develops the sisterhood through her example and action. She is the first to volunteer or to support someone in need. You need your hair braided, see Emma. She is an organizer, a planner, a relationship builder. She makes sure to support all of her Belles through whatever they need. Emma is a strong advocate for student-athlete mental health, and serves as the Saint Mary’s co-president of Morgan’s Message as well as a Morgan’s Message Campus Ambassador. Her charge is to offer resources to empower, support and expand the dialogue on mental health by normalizing the conversations around mental health for student-athletes. Emma is a light and a positive presence not only on our lacrosse team, but to our department and the College in general.
A native of Granger, Indiana Emma is the daughter of Adam and Laura Zmudzinski. She will graduate with a Bachelor of Arts as a Studio Art major with a concentration in Painting and a minor in Business Administration. We are proud to present the 2025 Don Miller Belles Spirit Award to Emma Zmudzinski.
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Mary Ellen Smith Academic and Athletic Achievement Award - Katelyn Tokarz
Presented for outstanding academic and athletic achievement and future promise as a Saint Mary's graduate.
Mary Ellen Smith served as our Dean of Students from 1986 – 1992. She was a dedicated leader, educator and avid supporter of all students during her tenure at Saint Mary's. She was especially supportive of the athletic department and of all student-athletes. Every student-athlete knew Mary Ellen. She was at our home events, award banquets, fundraisers, and would even assist in driving our teams to away contests. Through Mary Ellen's leadership and commitment to improving the athletic experience, she advocated for and oversaw the transition to our move from NAIA to NCAA Division III. Mary Ellen Smith passed away suddenly on June 1, 2015. To ensure that her contributions to Saint Mary's College Athletics will not be forgotten, we have re-named our academic and athletic achievement award in her honor.
Mary Ellen loved the ideals of NCAA Division III. She knew this was the best fit for our Saint Mary’s women as it kept the college experience well-rounded without compromising our student-athletes’ academic goals. Our women can compete at the highest levels of sport and pursue any major they desire. They can further enrich their college experience through internships, study abroad opportunities, and involvement in college life. Mary Ellen would have been as proud as we are of senior golfer Katelyn Tokarz, for her academic and athletic accomplishments.
Katelyn has had an outstanding golf career here at Saint Mary’s. This two-time co-captain, is a three-time All-MIAA 2nd team honoree. She finished the conference season this past fall with scores placing her in the top 10 three times including a win at the fourth Jamboree after carding a career low of 72. In her four-year span with the program, she and her teammates have won the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MIAA) women’s golf tournament three out of her four years. The tournament winner earns the league’s automatic qualifier to the national tournament; so, this has translated into three trips in these last four years for our Belles golf program to compete at the highest level: the NCAA
Division III National Women’s Golf Championships.
The trend of excellence continues for Katelyn through her academic career. Katelyn is in the dual degree engineering program with Notre Dame. In her Notre Dame engineering courses, she is carrying a remarkable 3.72. As she is in the home stretch on her Saint Mary’s Bachelors of Science in Mathematics, she has earned a cumulative GPA of 3.89. With these stellar grades, she has been on the Dean's list for the past seven semesters; and, at the end of this year, she will be a four-time All-MIAA Academic Honor Roll honoree. Since the spring of 2023, Katelyn has also served as the President of Saint Mary’s Chapter of Pi Mu Epsilon, which is the national mathematics honor society. She was named a Women’s Golf Coaches’ Association (WGCA) All-American scholar for the past three years; and, at the completion of this year, we are expecting her to be a four-time honoree. To earn this honor, a student-athlete must maintain at least a 3.50 cumulative grade point average for the entirety of their college career and must have played in 50 percent of the college's regularly scheduled competitive rounds during the year in which they were nominated. Katelyn has met these criteria all four years.
Over her career with the Belles, Katelyn has helped her team to earn several WGCA All-Scholar Team GPA Awards. Her freshman year, the team boasted a ninth-best GPA in NCAA Division III women’s golf with a 3.720. This was the first time the team broke into the top ten in the nation. Last year, they blew that out of the water! Their cumulative team GPA of 3.807 placed the squad third overall in NCAA Division III women’s golf. It will be exciting to see how our golfers finish this year! What an outstanding example to all of our Belles on achievement in sport and excellence in the classroom.
A native of Northville, Michigan, Katelyn is the daughter of Greg and Karen Tokarz. She will graduate with a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics and will finish up the dual degree engineering program next year at Notre Dame with a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering with concentrations in semiconductors, nanotechnology and bioengineering. We are proud to present the 2025 Mary Ellen Smith Academic and Athletic Achievement Award to Katelyn Tokarz.
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Marvin Wood Outstanding Senior Athlete Award - Alayna Campbell
Presented to the outstanding senior athlete.
For a student-athlete to earn the Marvin Wood Outstanding Senior Student-Athlete Award, they need to come in strong and sustain strong throughout their athletic career. This is not easy when one considers all that freshmen college students are working through in their first year. They are adjusting to community living in residence life. They are making new friends. They have a more difficult course load and need to take on more personal responsibility than they were used to in high school. In athletics, they are adjusting to a higher level of training and competition; and, this year’s Marvin Wood honoree had one additional and unique adjustment to make – on top of all of this, she also had to adjust to having her dad as her college coach. Alayna Campbell did it all with grace!
Alayna started her athletic career at Saint Mary’s as the sole first-year student-athlete on the tennis roster. In no time, she earned the respect of her team. They witnessed her strong work ethic and dedication to training. She was quickly recognized as a great teammate and incredibly talented tennis player. And, in more ways than one, she made an immediate impact on the program! At the end of that first season, she was voted the Most Valuable Player by her fellow Belles and earned All-MIAA 2nd team honors. This was just the start of great things to come.
Alayna would continue to earn All-MIAA honors each of her four years with the tennis program. This is no small feat when one considers that she accomplished this by playing her entire career at the #1 doubles position and the #1 and #2 singles position. Remarkably, she has played in 198 consecutive matches never missing even a single match in her career. Alayna’s 118 total wins show a level of success that our program has not seen in 18 years!
Her impact on our tennis program cannot be understated. Alayna’s four-years at Saint Mary’s coincide with the four most successful years that our tennis program has strung together since the early 2000’s. Her freshman year, the Belles finished fourth in the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MIAA) which includes nationally ranked powerhouse programs. From then on, they have never finished less than third in the league. Her sophomore year, Alayna and her fellow Belles were the only team in tennis history to go undefeated in non-conference play. Her junior year, they entered the MIAA Tournament as the third seed. At the semi-final match of that tournament, they defeated second seed Calvin University to advance to the finals. And this, her senior year, was the first time in collective memory that our tennis program earned a national ranking.
Alayna has been a role-model for her teammates on and off the court. She is a two-time team captain and has served as the tennis representative on our Student Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC). This nursing major has earned Dean’s List honors each of the past seven semesters. To date, she has been a three-year ITA All-Scholar Athlete, a two-time CSC Academic All-District student-athlete, and will be a four-year MIAA Academic Honor Roll honoree. This past week, she received the prestigious MIAA Karen Caine Award. The Karen Caine is presented to the senior tennis player who has excelled both on the court and in the classroom.
A native of Granger, Indiana, Alayna is the daughter of Dale and Christy Campbell. She will graduate with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree with a minor in biology. This summer, Alayna will begin working as a nurse in the neonatal ICU unit at Beacon Children’s Hospital. We are proud to present the 2025 Marvin Wood Outstanding Senior Student-Athlete Award to Alayna Campbell.
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