OKLAHOMA CITY – The Mid-America Christian volleyball team placed three on the Sooner Athletic Conference Volleyball Scholar-Athlete list that was announced on Tuesday.

To receive SAC Scholar-Athlete honors, a player must be a junior or above by academic standing with at least a 3.5 cumulative grade-point average, appear on the eligibility certificate for an NAIA-recognized sport and have either attended two full years as a non-transfer or one full year as a transfer.

Senior Elena Hadzhieva highlighted the list as one of only three student-athletes in the Sooner Athletic Conference to record a 4.0 GPA.

Hadzhieva was joined by junior outside hitter Hanna Foecker and sophomore defensive specialist Kaylie Walker on the distinguished list of 42 student-athletes to be selected as SAC Scholar-Athletes.

"I'm quite proud of these young women for excelling both on the court and in the classroom," said MACU Head Coach Holly McKamie. "Playing collegiate volleyball is extremely time consuming and to be able to maintain such high grades for the entirety of their collegiate careers is a major accomplishment. I am excited to see them get the recognition they deserve for their hard work in the classroom."

Completing her second season with the Evangels, Hadzhieva put together a career-year by finishing second on the team with 254 kills, averaging 2.7 kills per set on a .173 attack percentage.

The Razlog, Bulgaria native recorded a career-high 15 kills in just the third match of the season in a five-set loss on Aug. 24 to the Red River Athletic Conference champions, Huston-Tillotson.

The 5-10 outside hitter played in intricate role in leading MACU to its first appearance at the NCCAA National Championships in 2004, including its first time competing since moving up to the Division I level in 2007.

Hadzhieva recorded double-digit kills in four of the last five matches of the regular season, which included a 14-kill effort against Southwestern Assemblies of God in the SAC Quarterfinals. In her final match with the Evangels, Hadzhieva led MACU with 13 kills in a 3-0 sweep over Piedmont International in the final match of pool play at the NCCAA National Championships.

Hadzhieva graduated from MACU with honors while receiving Bachelor's Degrees in both Business Administration and Psychology.

A junior from Sudlohn, Germany, Foecker turned in one of the most stellar seasons in the history of the Evangels volleyball program, garnering MACU's first NCCAA All-American accolade since Christiane Smith in 2010 as well as All-SAC Second Team honors.

The 6-1 outside hitter closed out the 2019 campaign by setting the program's NAIA era single season kills per game record (3.95) and the second-best service aces per set mark (0.51) while finishing with the third-most total kills (371) and service aces (48).

Foecker made an instantaneous impact in her first season with MACU. In her first match with the Evangels, Foecker tied Christiane Smith's NAIA era single match kills record with 27 against Huston-Tillotson. Foecker eclipsed that record on Oct. 19 at Southwestern Christian by tallying 30 kills, leading the Evangels back from a two-set deficit with the match-tying kill in set four and the match-winning kill in the fifth.

Adding to the match records, Foecker also set the program's NAIA era three-set match kills record with 21 in a three-set sweep against Wayland Baptist on Oct. 10 inside the Gaulke Activity Center.

In the Evangels' final match of the 2019 campaign at the NCCAA National Championships, Foecker recorded a career-high seven service aces against Piedmont International, tying the fourth-most aces in a single match during the NAIA era.

Foecker is currently majoring in Business Administration and Ethics at Mid-America Christian and has accumulated a 3.67 GPA.

A junior academically but a sophomore athletically, Walker closed out her second season with the Evangels by finishing third on the team with 228 digs at 2.35 digs per set. The defensive specialist also tallied 21 aces from the service line over the course of 97 sets of work.

Walker recorded a season-high 15 digs on three separate occasions last season, including against SAGU in the SAC Quarterfinal on Nov. 12 and then against Judson in the first match of pool play at the NCCAA National Championships on Dec. 3.

From the service line, Walker tallied a season-best three aces on a pair of occasions, the first coming against Southwestern Christian on Sept. 10 and then again against Central Christian on Sept. 21.

Walker is a Biology and Psychology double major at MACU, accumulating a GPA of 3.69.

To view the complete list of MACU's Scholar-Athlete recipients, check out the list below.

SAC Volleyball Scholar-Athletes

Elena Hadzhieva*

Hanna Foecker

Kaylie Walker

*-denotes 4.0 GPA