Brenna Bell Earns Second-Team Academic All-America Honors

CLAREMONT, Calif. - Brenna Bell of the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps women's volleyball team earned Second-Team Academic All-America honors, as chosen by College Sports Communicators, the organization announced today.

The award, which combines both athletic and academic achievement, is eligible for student-athletes who are sophomores or older, and who carry at least a 3.4 cumulative grade point average. 

Bell was a first-team All-America selection from the American Volleyball Coaches Association, and set a new program record with a .404 hitting percentage, which was the highest in the nation among outside hitters. She had kills on over half of her swings on the year, tallying 210 kills on 406 attempts with only 46 errors.

In addition to her strong aggregate numbers, she also had some big performances against top teams, including 16 kills in 23 attempts at nationally ranked Emory to cap off the East-West Battle on Sept. 10. She was also 16-for-27 hitting at the Cal Lu Fornia Invitational against Endicott and Colorado College, and 26-for-51 in the NCAA Regionals. As a first-year in 2021, she had a huge performance in a five-set win over Wartburg in the regional finals, tallying 18 kills and no errors, including the winning kill at 18-16 in the fifth set. 

Academically, Bell carries a 3.88 grade point average as an environment, economics and politics major at Claremont McKenna, and was a SCIAC All-Academic Team selection in 2021-22. 

The CMS volleyball team finished the year with a 30-1 record after its first-ever undefeated regular season, and spent 10 weeks as the No. 1 ranked team in the nation.