(Photo courtesy of Clarion University Athletics)

The senior volleyball player added the honor to an already impressive list of accolades this season, as Holden was earlier this year named a Division 2 Conference Commissioners Association (D2CCA) Third Team All-American and a First Team All-PSAC selection.

Initiated in the 1997-98 academic year, the PSAC Top 10 Awards are designed to recognize student-athletes who excel in both the classroom and in athletic competition. The Top 10 Award is selected by the conference’s sports information directors and given to five males and five females in each athletic season: fall, winter and spring. Holden is a Nursing major with a 3.81 GPA.

Holden ranked as one of the best offensive players in the PSAC and the nation in 2019, sitting among the national leaders in kills and points for the entire season. She finished second in NCAA Division II with averages of 4.66 kills and 5.32 points per set. Her 489 total kills ranked first in the PSAC and sixth in the country at the start of the NCAA postseason.

Holden set the NCAA single-match high in 2019 with 31 kills in a four-set match, doing so against Fairmont State on Sept. 20, and Holden also had the second-highest single-match kills totals in a three-set (25 vs. Notre Dame College on Sept. 21) and a five-set (32 vs. East Stroudsburg on Sept. 27) match. Earlier this fall she was recognized as a CoSIDA Academic All-District selection for the first time in her career.

Her accolades also rank among the best in a Clarion career as well. Holden finished her career with 1,439 career kills, the fifth-highest total in program history and just four kills behind the fourth-place holder. Her 489 total kills ranked sixth for a single-season in program history, and she is one of only two Golden Eagles to top 460 kills in multiple years. Holden wraps up her career with three straight all-conference selections, including a Third Team finish in 2017 and a First Team nod last year.