Conference USA Commissioner Judy MacLeod named the 14 recipients of the Jim Castañeda Postgraduate Scholarship Awards Monday, including Mary Pursell, a former women’s volleyball student-athlete at Southern Miss.

This is the eighth year the award has been named for Dr. Castañeda, who served Rice University for 46 years as an educator, coach and faculty athletics representative before he died in November 2008.

The conference annually awards the $4,000 postgraduate scholarships to graduates as selected by the C-USA faculty athletics representatives and approved by the Board of Directors.

Pursell earned four letters as the libero for the Golden Eagle volleyball team. An accounting major, she received a C-USA Commissioner’s Academic Medal all four years and graduated last month with a 3.862 GPA.

The Kenner, Louisiana, native  was also commended for her stellar performances on the court.
She was named C-USA Libero of the Year back-to-back seasons, earning All-Conference USA first-team honors those same 2014 and 2015 seasons.

Her 677 total digs in 2015 set the single-season school record and ranked seventh on the NCAA charts.
Pursell will be attending the University of Mississippi this summer to obtain her master’s degree in accountancy.

A  list of the  award recipients is as follows:
• Alexis Betancourt, Softball, Charlotte Robin Spiegel, Men’s Soccer, FIU
• Derek Moise, Football, Florida Atlantic
• Diamond Every, Women’s Track & Field, Louisiana Tech
• Jack Hopkins, Men’s Soccer, Marshall
• Nayara Moraes, Women’s Tennis, Middle Tennessee
• Kedron Sowells, Men’s Track & Field, North Texas
• Edwin Logan Teal, Men’s Swimming, Old Dominion
• Solomiya Zinko, Women’s Tennis, Rice
• Mary Pursell, Volleyball, Southern Miss
• Elaine Simon, Women’s Tennis, UAB
• Cameasha Turner, Women’s Basketball, UTEP
• Kauwela Neal, Women’s Soccer, UTSA
• Rachel Engle, Volleyball, WKU