Valpo senior Grace Hales (Cromwell, Ind./Westview) has been selected to the Missouri Valley Conference Scholar-Athlete Second Team in recognition of her work both on the court and in the classroom, as announced by the MVC office Tuesday morning.

Hales has led Valpo offensively in her final season in the Brown and Gold, averaging a team-best 12.2 points per game as the program has enjoyed its winningest year since 2006-07. She led the MVC in conference-only play as she connected at a 51.9% clip from 3-point range. Having surpassed the 1,000-point milestone for her career earlier this year, Hales enters the MVC Tournament 12^th in program history in career scoring, eighth in 3-pointers made, second in free throw percentage and third in 3-point percentage.

In the classroom, Hales has been just as successful during her four years at Valpo. She graduated with her bachelor’s degree in communication last August and currently carries a perfect 4.00 GPA in the sports media master’s program. Hales has received the MVC Commissioner’s Academic Excellence Award and has been named to the MVC Academic Honor Roll each of Valpo’s first two years in the conference.