University of Evansville women’s basketball player Chelsea Falkenstein (Evansville, Ind./Memorial) has earned honorable mention Missouri Valley Conference Scholar-Athlete recognition as announced by the conference office.

Falkenstein, an elementary education major with a 3.92 cumulative grade point average, was one of two players for the Aces that started all 30 games this season. The Evansville native finished the year averaging 6.1 points and 4.3 rebounds per game. She ranked second on the team with a .402 field goal percentage and led UE with 25 blocks on the year. With 47 career blocks, she ranks eighth on UE’s all-time list.

Falkenstein started the year hot, scoring 17 and 16 points, respectively, in the Aces first two games of the year, including leading UE past powerhouse Bowling Green in the season-opener. In UE’s final three games of the regular season, the junior scored 11 points on 4-of-5 shooting versus Indiana State (2/27), led the squad with six rebounds against Missouri State (3/3), and scored 10 points, including two three-pointers versus Wichita State (3/5).

The criteria for the scholar-athlete team balloting parallels the CoSIDA (College Sports Information Directors of America) standards for Academic All-America voting. Nominees must be starters or important reserves, have played at least 75 percent of a team's games, and must carry at least a 3.20 GPA (on a 4.0 scale).

Student-athletes must also have reached sophomore athletic and academic standing at their institution (true and redshirt freshmen are not eligible) and must have completed at least one full academic year at the institution.