ST. LOUIS – UNI’s Sammey Bunch and Adara Opiola have been selected as MVC First Team Scholar Athletes as announced by the conference office on Wednesday afternoon.
Twelve conference softball student-athletes have been named to the 2020 MVC Scholar-Athlete first team, including six repeat first team selections, as voted on by the league’s softball sports information directors.
A three time MVC First Team Scholar Athlete, Bunch has been on the Dean’s List 5 semesters and has made the AD honor Roll in 7 semesters. Bunch is a senior with a 3.63 cumulative GPA in Movement and Exercise Science. Bunch has been named First Team All-MVC every year at UNI including taking home the MVC Freshman of the Year honor in 2017 and was named the MVC Player of the Year as a junior in 2019. Bunch became UNI’s all-time home run record holder with two bombs in the opening game of the season against Murray State. Bunch recorded 2 or more hits 7 times. Scored 19 runs on 20 hits in the shortened 2020 season.
Opiola earned Honorable Mention Scholar Athlete honors in 2019 and now picks up a First Team Scholar Athlete nod in her senior campaign. Opiola is a senior Political Science major with a 3.81 cumulative GPA. The senior third baseman was named to the MVC All-Tournament team as season ago after leading the Panthers to the championship game. Opiola recorded multiple hits on four separate occasions this season while driving home three runs against Belmont and crossed the plate three times against Bryant in 2020.
