Anteaters honor scholar-athletes

Men’s volleyball player Jon Steller, baseball player Ben Orloff and track and field standout Lauren Collins highlighted 182 honored by UC Irvine as Big West Scholar-Athletes in the 2008-09 school year.

Jon Steller was recognized as the Lauds & Laurels Outstanding Senior Athlete, the most prestigious award given by the UCI Alumni Assn.

Orloff (male) and Collins (female) were the school’s Scholar-Athletes of the Year.

Steller was a member of the 2009 national champions, firing a service ace to rally the Anteaters in the fifth game of the title match against USC at BYU.

An opposite, he averaged 2.05 kills per set as a senior, and recorded a career-high 32 kills in a match at Pepperdine, the fifth-best total in the nation. He was named Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Player of the Week three times in his career as well as American Volleyball Coaches Assn. National Player of the Week once. The 2008 All-American is sixth all-time at UCI with 90 career aces.

Steller, who also played on UCI’s 2007 national championship team, is a three-time conference scholar-athlete as well as a two-time ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District honoree. He graduated with degrees in neurobiology and the classics and will attend UCI Medical School in the Fall.

Orloff became the first UCI baseball player to be named Big West Conference Player of the Year this season as he helped lead the ’Eaters to the program’s first conference title.

He won the Brooks Wallace Award as the nation’s top collegiate shortstop and was drafted in the ninth round by the Houston Astros.

He made several All-American teams and finished his career as UCI’s all-time leader in hits, runs and games.

Orloff graduated with a degree in criminology, law and society.

Collins’ junior season included a Big West title in the high jump, won by posting a school-record mark of 6 feet, 1 1/4 inches. She finished third at the NCAA West Regional and was ninth at the NCAA championship.

She also qualified for the NCAA outdoor championships in the heptathlon, but did not compete in the event.

She broke her own school record in the heptathlon with a total of 5,549 points in winning the Northridge Spring Break Open in March. That performance generated Big West Conference Athlete of the Week honors for the fourth time in her career.

A three-time Big West Scholar-Athlete, Collins’s marks rank second all-time at UCI in the 100-meter hurdles and third in the long jump.

She is a sociology major with a minor in education.

UCI’s Big West Conference Scholar-Athletes of the Year were senior Lauren Kellerman (women’s volleyball) and senior Eric Pettis (baseball). Each conference school honors one male and one female athlete each year from Big West sponsored sports.

Kellerman was named an All-American by the American Volleyball Coaches Assn. last fall. She was named first-team all-conference for the third straight season and garnered all-conference recognition four times.

She was named Big West Conference Player of the Week once as a senior and was second on the team this season with 349 kills. Her 259 digs and 20 aces ranked third among her teammates last fall.

She finished her career third all-time in kills and sixth in aces at UCI.

Kellerman is a three-time Big West Scholar-Athlete who graduated with a degree in sociology.

Pettis earned All-American honors for the second straight season. The closer recorded 17 saves in each of the past two years and shared the school single-season record with Blair Erickson.

He repeated as a first-team All-Big West honoree and he was a finalist for the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Assn. Stopper of the Year Award as a junior.

He is a two-time Big West Scholar-Athlete majoring in psychology.

Women’s tennis player Heidi Kaloi and men’s track athlete Julian Eiason both received the Academic Achievement Award from the UCI Admissions Office.

Women’s track athletes Samantha Costantini, Kelley Hall and Vanessa Vaughn received the UCI Athletics Leadership Award.

Women’s cross country received the Faculty Athletic Representative Award for highest team grade-point average.

To be named a Big West Scholar-Athlete, one must maintain a 3.0 grade-point average over three quarters, or a 3.2 GPA over two quarters for freshmen. Student-athletes must also earn letters in their sports.

The Scholar-Athlete award was implemented by the Big West Conference to honor those student-athletes that have maintained a high level of scholastic excellence while participating in intercollegiate athletics.

UCI expanded the award to include teams that do not participate in Big West-sponsored sports.

2008-09 UCI Scholar-Athletes

Baseball

Tony Asaro, Dillon Bell, Danny Bibona, DJ Crumlich, Jeff Cusick, Matt Dufour, Ryan Fisher, Francis Larson, Sean Madigan, Ben Orloff, Eric Pettis, Crosby Slaught

Men’s basketball

Kevin Bland, Chad De Casas, Adam Folker, Jonas Lalehzadeh

Men’s crew

Mat Anderson, Chase Davis, Richard Denny, Derrick Diego, Bradley Doucette, Jeffrey Draper, Benjamin Hise, Mitchell Hsing, Kyle Kernohan, Brandon Liu, Oracio Sanchez, Justin Sherman, Anthony Trebbin, Billy Yu, Benjamin Zachariah

Men’s cross country

Aman Bhatia, Colin Hacker, Sam Hyams, Danny Kalinowski, Bryan Lopez, Nick Mosey, Tim Murphy, Camron Shahmirzadi, Greg Thompson, Rusty Whisman

Men’s golf

Cean Geronimo

Men’s soccer

Corey Attaway, Brett Berman, Stephen Carveth, Zlatan Kuckovic, Matt Murphy, Eric Shuffle, David Sias, Spencer Thompson, Navid Torabian, Luke Van Patten, Amani Walker, Shane Westbrook

Men’s swimming & diving

Blaine Fletcher, James Frank, Danny Giometti, David Lefstein, Matt Lippi, Chris Nguyen, Eric Nugent, Patrick Nugent, Christopher Rosales, Nick Sullivan, Walid Wasfy, Will Wollam, Raymond Yan

Men’s tennis

Sam Gould, Khunpol Issara, Shimpei Suzuki, Gautam Vaidyanathan

Men’s track & field

Scott Bogdanoff, Justin Carter, Julian Eison, Byron Frenkiel, Kelley Hall, Ryan Hershey,

Kevin Houser, Jim Kearney, Sam Navid, Hermes Ongsansoy, Joe Pearson, Kyle Peterson

Men’s volleyball

Brent Asuka, Nick Goldsbrough-Reardon, Cole Reinholm, Jon Steller, Kevin Wynne,

Cory Yoder

Men’s water polo

Derrik Jarvis, Robert Keifer, Griffin Lerman, Harvey Newland,

Sailing

Martha Davis, Blair Johnston, Frank O’Brien, Jack Porter, Ashley Simpson

Women’s basketball

Miljana Cejic, Kelly Cochran, Kirian Ishizaki, Raquel Theus,

Women’s cross country

Kendall Bruton, Lauren Chramosta, Megan Fairley, Chloe Fata, Shelley Foerster, Meryl Follosco, Amy Green, Erinn Kim, Katherine Nielsen, Laura Olvera, Emily Romo, Stephanie Sconberg, Jessica Vaughan

Women’s golf

Patty Chawalithmetha, Mariko Makabe

Women’s crew

Allison Baker, Heather Conniff, Natasha Duell, Julia Karczewski, Rachel Miller, Jamila Moucharrafie, Cassie Nardone, Linh Nguyen, Marie Pillari, Marine Schmitt

Tabitha Schnose, Jennifer Stacy, Vivian Tang, Heather Vander, Vis

Women’s soccer

Kate Berrini, Kelly Block, Caty Cope, Carly Crowder, Danielle de Seriere, Rachel Flemming, Erin Henry, Lexi Kopf, Jordan Kopf, Kathleen Lemieux, Stevie Mersola

Kellie Murphy, Megan Ortiz, Tanya Taylor

Women’s swimming

Christina Daniels, Julia Fancher, Sarah Frost, Karissa Kruszewski, Rachel Pearson, Jessica Schlitz, Marlena Tonelli

Women’s tennis

Brooke Bartlett, Ali Borowicz, Stephanie Hammel, Heidi Kaloi, Ali Murphy, Miranda Young

Women’s track & field

Kelly Collins, Lauren Collins, Samantha Costantini, Jamie Crow, Kristina Fryar, Madeline LeDuc, Jennifer Lee, Ashley Lowe, Fritzie Mercado, Martina Mickos, Natalie Nguyen,

Katherine Nielson, Kelsi Sando, Vanessa Vaughan, Lauren Wilson

Women’s volleyball

Alexandra Bubica, Riley Cropper, Lauren Kellerman, Taryn Robertson, Devon Sutherland

Women’s water polo

Trudy Chancellor, Cortney Collyer, Lauren Davis, Janee Walsh