ARDEN HILLS, Minn. – Looking back on the 2011-12 season, Bethel University athletics enjoyed a number of incredible achievements and accolades. Several teams made monumental runs to the postseason, while certain individuals amped up their play to become star performers. Additionally, the Royals made plenty of noise off the playing surface throughout the entire year. With all that said, we will look at the Top 10 stories of the 2011-12 school year for Bethel athletics over the next ten days (one each day). Today, however, will highlight the No. 7 moment in this year's Top 10.
 
2011-12 Top 10: No. 7
 
Postgraduate scholarship awarded to Wriedt
Senior volleyball player Nicole Wriedt was honored among outstanding NCAA athletes this spring, as the standout opposite side was announced as a recipient of the NCAA postgraduate scholarship granted to fall student-athletes. Throughout all NCAA divisions, Wriedt was just one of 29 women, including 10 Division III athletes, to receive the $7,500 grant that can be applied to continued education beyond an undergraduate degree.

Wriedt, a Dean's List student over her four years at Bethel and a Presidential Scholar, has maintained a GPA of 3.93, while pursuing a social work and reconciliation studies double-major. Her GPA has also awarded her three MIAC Academic All-Conference selections and helped her team win three American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Team Academic Awards.

The Pewaukee, Wis. native excelled on the court by posting 2.91 kills per set during her senior year, while fighting for .93 digs and .61 blocks per frame. Wriedt finished her four-year tenure playing 421 sets and 116 matches, firing 1,123 kills and sniffing out 278 digs. These statistics helped make Wriedt a MIAC All-Conference player for three consecutive years and an AVCA All-Region Honorable Mention selection in 2011.

Before attending graduate school, Wriedt plans to intern for one year with 10/40 Connections, a non-profit, interdenominational organization that seeks to cultivate connections in a fragmented world, and increase the church's momentum among the least reached peoples. For her internship, Wriedt will assist in fundraising events, volunteer management tasks, and a new campaigns; assist with logistics for international ministry teams; and travel to India, Nepal, Turkey, Greece, and Italy ministering with the Segraves family, the directors of 10/40 Connections.

"This will be an invaluable experience before I enter school in preparation for leadership in global ministry and non-profit work," says Wriedt.

After her internship, Wriedt plans to enroll in the Divinity and Social Work Dual-Degree Program through the partnership of University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and Duke Divinity School beginning in August 2013.

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