Metcalf, a senior right side hitter, is the third NU volleyball player in school history to receive the honor, joining Janet Kruse (1992) and Virginia Stahr (1990). Overall, Metcalf is the 14th student-athlete from Nebraska to win a Top VIII award. Grant Wistrom was the last winner in 1997.

This year?s selections include the 2001 NCAA Woman of the Year; the 2001 Daktronics Division II Basketball Player of the Year; one of the nation?s top collegiate punt returners and receivers; a 28-time All-American; a three-time NCAA champion who is also vice-president of her school?s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee; a three-time American Volleyball Coaches Association All-American; a golfer who is only one of four golfers ever to be named a four-time, first-team all-American; and the 2001 Women?s Naismith College Player of the Year who helped lead her team to the NCAA Division I Women?s Basketball Championship title.

In addition to their athletics accomplishments, the NCAA Today?s Top VIII recipients have earned numerous academic honors, have volunteered countless hours to community projects and have served as role models for their academic institutions and to their peers.

Joining Metcalf as this year?s selections are Kimberly Black, a swimmer from Georgia; Emily Bloss, a basketball and outdoor track and field student-athlete from Emporia State; Andr? Davis, a football player and indoor and outdoor track and field student-athlete from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University; Misty Hyman, a swimmer from Stanford; Leah Juno, an indoor and outdoor track and field and cross country student-athlete from Wisconsin, Stevens Point; Bryce Molder, a golfer from Georgia Institute of Technology; and Ruth Riley, a basketball player from the Notre Dame.

Metcalf, a three-time AVCA First-Team All-American, was a member of the U.S. National team for the 2000 Olympic Games. Before sitting out the 2000 season as a redshirt while training for the Olympic team, Metcalf became the fourth-fastest player in NCAA history to record 1,000 career kills. Metcalf recently joined former U.S. National Team captain Allison Weston as the only two players in Nebraska history to record 1,400 kills and 375 blocks. Metcalf has helped this year?s Huskers advance to the NCAA Division I semifinals with a 31-1 record, leading the team in kills, digs, service aces and double-doubles. The Huskers are currently preparing for their NCAA semifinal match against Stanford tonight at 10 p.m. CST.

A nominee for the 2001 Woody Hayes National Scholar-Athlete Award, Metcalf is an eight-time Big 12 commissioner?s academic honor roll member and a four-time highest Honors Academic Medallion winner. She was an academic all-American in 1999 and 1998 and a three-time all-academic all-conference selection.

Metcalf participated in various community events including serving as a volunteer for the ?I?ve Got Heart Card Series,? during which she wrote notes of encouragement to hospital patients statewide. She was an American Education Week panelist, making classroom presentations to middle schools, stressing the importance of education, respect, goal setting and involvement. As an American Red Cross volunteer, she joined a team of student-athletes to collect donations for the Disaster Relief Fund this past fall.

Metcalf was the keynote speaker for Nebraska?s ?School is Cool? Jam, for which she prepared and presented motivational messages to 14,000 middle school youth in spring 2001.

Recognition for the group at the Honors Dinner is in conjunction with the NCAA Convention in Indianapolis. CBS Sports broadcaster Clark Kellogg will serve as master of ceremonies for the event. Kellogg, a graduate of Ohio State University, was a standout basketball player at his alma mater and the 1982 No. 1 draft pick of the NBA?s Indiana Pacers.

The Today?s Top VIII honorees are selected by the NCAA Honors Committee comprised of eight athletics administrators at member institutions, conferences and nationally distinguished citizens who are former student-athletes. The members of the NCAA Honors Committee are: Harry Carson, president, Harry Carson, Inc.; Eugene F. Corrigan, commissioner emeritus, Atlantic Coast Conference; Joseph N. Crowley, regents? professor/president emeritus, University of Nevada; Clyde Doughty Jr., athletics director, New York Institute of Technology; Jack Ford, ABC news anchor/correspondent; Jo Ann Harper, senior associate athletics director, Dartmouth College; Karen L. Johnson, director of institutional research, Alfred University; and Valerie Richardson, assistant commissioner, West Coast Conference. Potential candidates are nominated by NCAA member institutions and selected by the committee, which is chaired by Richardson.