Clarksville, TN – Although the Austin Peay State University (APSU) volleyball team lost in the finals of the Ohio Valley Conference championship tournament Saturday, November 17th and more than likely ended the career of Governors senior setter Kristen Stucker, she will leave behind what must be considered a first-ballot Austin Peay Athletics Hall of Fame career.
Stucker, a Johnson, Iowa native has been a part of 91 wins over her four seasons, which sets new program mark for wins by a senior class breaking the old standard of 85 wins by the seniors on the 1994 squad.
Counted among those wins are for the first time in program history back-to-back OVC regular-season championships (2017, 2018) and two appearances in the OVC Tournament championship game – including a tournament championship in 2017 and a trip to the NCAA Tournament.
Statistically, Stucker can be argued to be the best setter to ever play at Austin Peay as her 4,704 assist ranks second all-time in program history – first under the current 25-point format – with her last three seasons seeing her post the first (1,508/2017), fifth (1,338/2016) and seventh (1,281/2018) totals for assist in a single season.
But Stucker has been much more than just setter, having also finished 18th all-time in digs (1,105), 25th all-time in aces (88) and just outside the school’s Top 25 in blocks with 155.
Also, her 4,700+ career assists and 1,100+ digs make Stucker one of only 12 Austin Peay volleyball players to enter the double-grand club (1,000 kills, digs or assists in a career) and only the fifth setter to record a double grand in their career.
As far as honors go, Stucker was voted OVC Setter of the Week 21 times in her career (43.8%) of the 48 total weeks the honor was given out in her career; three-time OVC Setter of the Year, three-time All-OVC First-Team selection and three-time OVC All-Tournament Team selection.
Academically, with a career 4.0 GPA with a double major in biology and agriculture and a double minor in chemistry and pre-professional health (pre-veterinary program) Stucker is a three-time CoSIDA Google Cloud Academic All-District selection and a 2nd-Team CoSIDA Google Cloud All-America® winner in 2017 and currently up for All-American again this year.
Stucker is also a three-time OVC Academic Medal of Honor winner and the 2017-18 OVC Scholar-Athlete Award Winner.
So, for the past four years as a Governor, Stucker has had an outstanding career not only on the volleyball court but in the class room as well and in five years — when she first becomes eligible — a hall of fame career.
