Western Kentucky volleyball’s Callie Bauer, Paige Briggs and Katie Isenbarger were all selected for the Conference USA 2022 All-Academic Team, the league office announced Friday.

Briggs and Isenbarger have both earned the recognition back-to-back seasons now – Briggs with her third award – while redshirt freshman Bauer posts her first recognition as the starting setter for WKU.

With the three WKU players on the conference team, WKU owns the most spots of the 11-member team, with UTEP and Charlotte placing two players apiece. The Hilltoppers have now had at least one honoree in all nine seasons in Conference USA. WKU has had 13 student-athletes earn a spot on the all-academic team in that span.

All athletes that were nominated were selected by a combination of academic and athletic accomplishments.

Bauer, playing her first full season for the Tops as the leading setter, has risen to a 3.79 GPA in marketing along with a graphic design minor in her four semesters at WKU. As a regular on both the dean’s and president’s list at WKU, Bauer was named to the C-USA Commissioner’s Honor Roll and earned the Academic Medal in the fall of 2021. Playing in every single set thus far this season, Bauer leads the conference in assists and averages 11.03 assists per set. At one point on the year, the Hudson, Mich., native was ranked fifth in the nation in total assists, while also carrying out WKU’s first triple-double since 2009 against North Kentucky (10 kills, 39 assists, 10 digs) on Sept. 8.

Briggs is a six-rotation outside hitter for WKU and owns a 3.96 GPA. In addition to her visual studies major, the Ortonville, Mich., native is minoring in graphic design and entrepreneurship. She’s started all 89 sets for WKU while tallying 3.84 kills per set on a .349 hitting percentage along with 2.31 digs per set while adding 31 aces and 43 blocks. Additionally, Briggs has earned a spot on WKU’s president’s list all six semesters, while recording her 1,000th career kill and 1000th career dig this season.

Isenbarger, a middle hitter out of Zionsville, Ind., earned her bachelor’s degree in sports management last year and is working towards her MBA in recreation and sport administration with a 4.0 GPA. She’s appeared in every set for WKU this season while totaling 109 kills (1.60 per set) and a .345 hitting percentage while averaging 1.18 blocks per set and adding 53 digs and 17 aces. Isenbarger has earned a spot on the WKU’s president’s list seven of her eight semesters at the school along with earning Conference USA Commissioner’s Academic Medal and Conference USA Commissioner’s Honor Roll every year since coming to WKU.

The all-academic trio has helped the Hilltoppers to a 25-2 overall record this fall, including the C-USA regular-season championship with a 14-0 mark in conference play. Their stellar play has helped WKU to a national ranking all season as well as top-five rankings in team hitting percentage (.322) and winning percentage (.926) in all of NCAA volleyball.