Stanford alumna Kerri Walsh Jennings will soon add another accolade to her multi-faceted career indoors and on the beach. The three-time Olympic gold medalist was named as one of 11 student-athletes set to be inducted into the Pac-12 Hall of Honor on March 9 in Las Vegas.
The Hall of Honor ceremony will be streamed live on the Pac-12 Now app and to Pac-12.com authenticated subscribers beginning at 7 p.m. ET. The inductees also will be recognized on court at halftime of the day’s first Pac-12 Men’s Basketball Tournament semifinal game.
The Hall of Honor class is the 17th since 2002, but the first to feature a wide array of student-athletes ranging from five different sports plus a women’s golf coach. In addition to Walsh Jennings, the group also includes seven other Olympians: swimmer Matt Biondi (Cal), pentathlete Bill Toomey (Colorado), distance runner Andrew Wheating (Oregon), women’s basketball player Carol Menken-Schaudt (Oregon State), decathlete Rafer Johnson (UCLA), Cheryl Miller (USC) and gymnast Missy Marlowe (Utah).
Walsh Jennings was a two-time Pac-10 Player of the Year, earning the nod in 1998 and 1999, and a four-time first team AVCA All-American, while guiding the Cardinal to national indoor titles in 1996 and 1997. The Saratoga, California, native was AVCA Co-National Player of the Year in 1999 and National Freshman of the Year in 1996, also leading Stanford for four straight conference titles and a 122-11 record. All told in her career, Walsh Jennings notched 1,553 kills, 1,285 digs and 502 blocks, making her the first ever women’s player in the league to do so.
This is not the first collegiate honor for Walsh Jennings, who was inducted into Stanford’s Athletics Hall of Fame in 2011 and had the school’s No. 1 beach court named in her honor last year.
As a professional, Walsh Jennings has competing in five Olympic Games, winning gold in 2004, 2008 and 2012 and silver in 2016. With former partner Misty May-Treanor, she won three FIVB Beach World Championships (2003, 2005 and 2007). Walsh Jennings is on her way back to the sand, eying the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
NEW: The @pac12 will honor 11 former student-athletes and a former coach with their induction into the Pac-12 Hall of Honor on Friday, March 9 during a ceremony prior to the semifinals of the #Pac12Hoops Tournament.
Full release: https://t.co/xPicuu8Dzf pic.twitter.com/waxHEBnbv8
— Pac-12 Network (@Pac12Network) February 26, 2018
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