Winthrop Volleyball Players Honored with Big South Conference’s Christenberry Award for Academic Excellence (05/26/26)

HIGHLIGHTS

• This year's total surpasses the record number of 12 recipients achieved in 2019-20 and 2024-25.
• Winthrop's two recipients, Avery Jolley and Rachel McCollum, both graduated in December 2025.

ROCK HILL, SOUTH CAROLINA - Winthrop University volleyball seniors Avery Jolley and Rachel McCollum were among 14 student-athletes honored this month by the Big South Conference with the Christenberry Award for Academic Excellence.

Big South member institutions nominate one male and one female student-athlete for the annual Christenberry Award, or multiple student-athletes that tie for the highest GPA on their respective campus. The honor is named for George A. Christenberry, the former president of Augusta College (now Augusta University) and one of the founders of the Big South Conference. A member of the Big South Hall of Fame, Christenberry served as the league's first president from 1983-86.

This year's total surpasses the record number of 12 recipients achieved in 2019-20 and 2024-25. Winthrop's two recipients, Jolley and McCollum, both graduated in December 2025.

Below are their accomplishments:

Jolley of Knoxville, Tennessee, wrapped up an historic 2025 season by earning AVCA All-America Honorable Mention honors, making her just the second Eagle in program history to receive the distinction. She also picked up AVCA All-Region recognition and became the first Winthrop student-athlete since 2020 to earn CSC Academic All-America Third-Team honors. She majored in business administration/healthcare management and will attend Northeastern University School of Law this fall.

On the court, Jolley was the 2025 Big South Player of the Year as she helped the Eagles win a share of the Big South regular-season championship. She tied the program's single-match kills record with 30, and surpassed 1,000 career kills. She earned back-to-back Volleyball Scholar-Athlete of the Year honors as a member of Winthrop's Honors College and Phi Kappa Phi.

McCollum, a biology major from Lakeland, Tennessee, concluded her Winthrop career with First-Team All-Conference honors in 2025, capping four years in which she put together 689 assists, 408 kills and 382 digs across 209 sets played. McCollum became the first Eagle since 2012 to record a triple-double in a match, a feat she pulled off twice this past season, including a career-high 56 assists against USC Upstate.

She earned Big South Setter of the Week honors three times and landed on multiple All-Tournament Teams. Off the court, she has been a Dean's List member since her first semester while completing an internship at Regional One Health. She was a member of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee and Gamma Beta Phi.

McCollum is now enrolled at the University of Alabama at Birmingham to work toward a Master of Science in Nursing degree. Her goal is to become a certified registered nurse anesthetist.

For more information, contact Bryce Lester, assistant athletics communications director, at [email protected].