OVERLAND PARK, Kan. - Loyola University Maryland
senior outside hitter Nina Camaioni has been named a candidate for the
inaugural Lowe's Senior CLASS Award for volleyball, the national committee
announced today.
Camaioni is one of 30 candidates for the nationwide award that honors senior
student-athletes who have notable achievements in four areas of excellence -
community, classroom, character and competition.
With today's announcement, Camaioni joins two other Greyhounds student-athletes
who are currently finalists for the award in other sports: Phil Bannister
(men's soccer) and Lina Staropoli (women's soccer).
Loyola is one of just three schools nationally to have a candidate for the
award in each of those three sports, joining Penn State and Stanford.
Camaioni's nomination comes two days after she was named the Metro Atlantic
Athletic Conference Preseason Co-Player of the Year.
A tri-captain this season for the Greyhounds, Camaioni set the Loyola
single-season kills record last season with 539 as a junior in 2009. She enters
the 2010 season with 1,287 kills, just 342 shot of the school record set in
2005 by Becky Corb.
Last season, she earned All-MAAC First Team honors, and she was the league's
Rookie of the Year in 2007. She was second in the conference in kills and kills
per set (4.49), and she finished the year 13th in NCAA Division I in kills per
set as a junior.
Also an excellent passer and defensive player, Camaoini has 1,328 digs in her
three years at Loyola.
Off the court, Camaioni's honors shine just as bright. She has maintained a
3.83 grade point average during her first three years as a Greyhound, and she
was named to the
ESPN The Magazine/CoSIDA Academic All-District II
Second Team for her academic excellence. Camaioni is on pace to graduate in May
with her degree in global studies, an interdisciplinary major that combines
studies of history, economics, sociology and political science.
In the Fall of 2008, Camaioni received Loyola's C
ura Personalis Award,
an honor that recognizes a person on campus who uses his or her particular
gifts and insights to address the needs others and foster understanding and
respect for their unique circumstances and concerns.
An active member of Loyola's campus ministry program and several other community
organizations, Camaioni has volunteered at Baltimore's Beans & Bread and
was an organizer of the school's Relay For Life event.
She serves as a lector for mass services at Loyola, is a member of the
university's Theology Club and is the organizer of a campus prayer group.
While studying abroad in Rome, Italy, during the Spring 2010 semester, Camaioni
did not stop her community service. There, she volunteered weekly at the
Caritas Diocesan Soup Kitchen, serving meals to refugees and the needy.
The candidate class of 30 will be narrowed to 10 finalists midway through the
regular season, and those 10 names will be placed on the official ballot.
Ballots will be distributed through a nationwide voting system to media,
coaches and fans, who will select one finalist who best exemplifies excellence
in the four Cs of community, classroom, character and competition.
Camaioni and the Greyhounds open their 2010 campaign tomorrow at the University
of Toledo Rocket Classic. Loyola will face the host Rockets in its opening game
on Friday, August 28, at 7 p.m., and the Greyhounds then take on 12th-ranked
Michigan and Binghamton on Saturday, August 28, at 12 and 5 p.m., respectively.