Stiefel, a junior outside hitter who helped lead the Lady Vikings to a 28-12 overall record and a No. 2 regional ranking this past season, was honored for her commitment to community service, athletics and academics.
Berry's first volleyball All-American, Stiefel earned that award, as well as All-Region and All-Conference honors in 2005. A physics major at Berry, she was also named as an NAIA All-American Scholar-Athlete.
Stiefel serves as president of Berry's Athletes Bettering the Community (ABC) organization, handling much of the planning for the community service organization featuring nearly all of the school's varsity student-athletes. ABC sends student-athletes into the Rome and Floyd County community to provide services to those in need. Among the events Stiefel has planned were activities such as providing meals and gifts to needy families and organizing a Christmas party for underprivileged children.
Along with her role in ABC, Stiefel is active in the community on her own. She chairs Berry Athletics' Relay for Life team and encourages other athletes to get involved in that endevour, and also mentors a young girl in the Rome community, becoming a positive, consistent and dependable figure in the young girl's life.
Stiefel is one of 12 winners of the Peach of an Athlete Award, which honors student-athletes at colleges or universities in the state of Georgia, or student-athletes who hail from the state of Georgia but compete outside the state, who have distinguished themselves by their character, scholastic achievement, academic excellence and community service.
She is the second Berry student-athlete to be so honored. In 2003, Berry baseball player Tyler Coats was honored as a Peach of an Athlete, and in 2004 Coats was honored by the organization as the state's Top Male Amateur Athlete Role Model.
Stiefel will be recognized at the 23rd Annual Peach of an Athlete Role Model Banquet April 18.
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