After an outstanding career at Wisconsin, Lauren Carlini has been nominated a semi-finalist to receive the 87th AAU Sullivan Award.
The award has been presented every year since 1930 to the most outstanding amateur athlete in the United States. The first recipient of the award was golfer Bobby Jones, a co-founder of The Masters, in 1930, while Anne Curtis became the first female to accept the award in 1944.
To date, there have been a large number of big name athletes who have been honored with the award, including – Bruce Jenner (Decathlon, 1976), Peyton Manning (Football, 1997), Michael Phelps (Swimming, 2003), Tim Tebow (Football, 2007, Shawn Johnson (Gymnastics, 2008) and Missy Franklin (Swimming, 2012).
In this year’s field features a number of talented athletes, with Carlini being the only volleyball player to be nominated for the award this year.
Carlini is the only four-time All-American in Wisconsin volleyball history, including three first-team honors. In 2014, Carlini was named the Big Ten Conference Player of the year and earned four first-team all-conference awards. She earned nine all-tournament honors during her career, including the 2013 NCAA Championship All-Tournament team. She was an 11-time Big Ten Setter of the Week and a four-time all-region selection.
In 2016, Carlini led the Big Ten, ranking third nationally, with 11.81 assists per set, ending her career with 5,599 assists, which ranks second on the Badger record list. Throughout her four years with Wisconsin, she averaged 11.52 assists per set. Carlini recorded 74 double-doubles in her career, setting a school record, also recording 1,367 digs in her four seasons.
Carlini helped lead Wisconsin to four straight NCAA tournaments, advancing to at least the Elite Eight round each season, also leading the Badgers to a Big Ten championship in 2014.
On top of her stellar athletic career, Carlini was a standout in the classroom earning four Academic All-Big Ten selections and earned an Academic All-America honor in 2016.
If Carlini were to win the award, she would be the first volleyball player to receive the award in the history of the award. You can vote for Carlini by clicking here.
The first round of voting will announce six finalists, with voting ending on March 13. The six finalist will be announced and another round of voting will take place with the event taking place on April 11, 2017 at the New York Athletic Club.
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