By: Evan O'Kelly, Associate Commissioner for Communications

PORTLAND, Ore. – Capping off her four-year career on the University of Alaska volleyball team with the top national academic honor, Elena Guc was recognized as a Collegiate Sports Communicators Academic All-American for the 2025 season announced on Tuesday.
 
Guc, who played in 103 matches during her tenure with the Nanooks, was a third-team selection among the list of the nation’s top performing players by measure of both academic and athletic success. A native of East China, Mich., Guc carries a perfect 4.0 grade point average as she works towards completing her degree in homeland security and emergency management.
 
Guc became just the seventh player since the GNAC was formed in 2001 to garner Academic All-America honors. She is the first Nanook to earn such recognition and made it two years in a row for the conference with recognition as both Hannah Hair of Seattle Pacific and Brooke Dexter of Simon Fraser earned third-team last season.
 
A three-time academic all-conference selection, Guc was among 26 players from the conference who were recognized as academic all-district selections for the 2025 season. Alaska, Saint Martin’s and Western Oregon led the league with four academic all-district selections each.
 
Seven players from the conference were repeat members on the list, including Western Washington’s Adele Holland who was the lone GNAC selection to earn her third straight academic all-district recognition. Holland is just the fifth player in GNAC history to earn three academic all-district honors, and is the second Viking joining Chloe Roetcisoender (2019, 2021-22). Other repeat winners from 2025 were Central Washington’s Scottie Ellsworth (2023) and Ellie Marble (2024), Northwest Nazarene’s Abby Black (2024), Western Oregon’s Finley Buman (2024) and Samantha Darby (2024) and WWU’s Abby May (2024).
 
To be eligible for the CSC academic all-district and Academic All-America program, players must have a minimum G.P.A. of 3.5 on a 4.0 scale and compete in 90% or start 66% of their team’s matches during the season. Each NCAA school is allowed a maximum six nominees who meet the above criteria.
 

2025 GNAC Volleyball CSC All-Academic Selections
Player	School	Year	Position	Acad. All-District	Acad. All-America
Elena Guc	Alaska	SR	RS	First Team	Third Team
Presley Engelauf	Alaska	SO	MB	First Team
Cynphany Henderson	Alaska	JR	S	First Team
Ainsley Smith	Alaska	SR	S	First Team
Kayleigh-Shay Chang	Central Washington	SO	S	First Team
Scottie Ellsworth (’23)	Central Washington	SR	OH	First Team
Ellie Marble (’24)	Central Washington	JR	OH	First Team
Stella Scott	Montana State Billings	SR	MB	First Team
Avarey Stuff	Montana State Billings	JR	DS	First Team
Abby Black (’24)	Northwest Nazarene	JR	OH	First Team
Lailauni Cortes	Northwest Nazarene	FR	DS	First Team
Morgan Wilding	Northwest Nazarene	JR	S	First Team
Emily Garten	Saint Martin’s	JR	OH	First Team
Emmy Hansen	Saint Martin’s	SR	OH	First Team
Tiffany Lam	Saint Martin’s	JR	S	First Team
Kingsley Mason	Saint Martin’s	SR	OPP	First Team
Amaya Evans	Seattle Pacific	SO	OPP	First Team
Makayla Hickman	Seattle Pacific	SO	L	First Team
Brooke Williams	Seattle Pacific	SO	MB	First Team
Finley Buman (’24)	Western Oregon	JR	MB	First Team
Samantha Darby (’24)	Western Oregon	JR	S	First Team
Sydney Friesen	Western Oregon	SO	DS	First Team
Maela Honma	Western Oregon	SO	OH	First Team
Finnley Claeys	Western Washington	JR	DS	First Team
Adele Holland (’23-24)	Western Washington	SR	S	First Team
Abby May (’24)	Western Washington	SR	OH	First Team