Jessica Terry named as TSC female A.O. Duer Scholarship nominee

by Richard Baptist

Babson Park, Fla. (06/26/2020) — Webber International University is proud to announce that Jessica Terry of the Warriors' women's indoor and beach volleyball teams has been selected by The Sun Conference as the league's female nominee for the A.O. Duer Scholarship Award, which recognizes academic and athletic excellence by a junior student-athlete. Terry is the conference selection and now is nominated for the award at the NAIA national level.

Terry, a three-time Sun Conference All-Academic honoree between both indoor and beach volleyball, carries a 3.84 grade point average in integrated marketing communications.

A member of the Dean's List every semester she has been enrolled at Webber, Terry has earned a national championship in beach volleyball while assisting as a defensive specialist and outside hitter for indoor volleyball and helping the Warriors to a conference regular-season championship in 2018 and tournament championship in 2017.

In 2018, Terry was named the Most Improved Player on the Warriors' beach volleyball team and played a key part in the squad's inaugural Sun Conference Invitational Championship team in 2019.

Terry is originally from Phoenix, Arizona, but moved to Cocoa Beach when she came to Florida.

"Jessica's outstanding leadership within the classroom and on the volleyball court has shown throughout our entire campus at Webber International University," said Webber's Head Women's Volleyball Coach Gretchen Hand. "She is by far the most-studious student-athlete I have had the pleasure to work with."

Terry was a member of Webber's Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) as a freshman in 2017-18, helping to create a lake day for the campus as well as participating in multiple hours of volunteer work and community service. She was chosen as a fellow for Independent Colleges and Universities of Florida (ICUF), for which she represented Webber at the Florida State Capitol to stand for the rights of student-athletes to keep their EASE grants. Lastly, Terry was voted onto the board of the Phi Beta Lamba (PBL), business club at Webber as the Vice President in 2019, where she has led the club to nationals while also helping to create events such as the Trunk or Treat event, which gave student-athletes at Webber the opportunity to meet people from the community and give out candy to children.

Webber's Director of Athletics Mr. Darren Richie said of Terry, "Jessica is a dedicated student-athlete who has been a tremendous asset to both the Warrior beach volleyball and indoor volleyball programs. Outside of her athletic and academic accomplishments, Jessica stands out as a leader at Webber as she has completed multiple hours of volunteer work for this campus and has organized many different student and community-involved activities."

This nomination at the Sun Conference level sends Terry onto the NAIA national competition for the Duer Award. Terry now will wait to see who the NAIA National Selection Committee picks as the national winner in mid-September.

Media Attachments