Albany, NY—Russell Sage College's department of athletics announced their award winners for the 2021-2022 academic year at the annual awards banquet.  In addition to several honors bestowed for athletic and academic excellence, Sage also selected the Gator of the Year Award for the department's 21 varsity sports for the 2021-2022 year.

RSC's sophomore Statia Walker (Schodack, NY/Maple Hill) was honored as the Gator of the Year in women's volleyball.

Walker, who was named to the 2021 Empire 8 Sportswomen of the Year Team contributed 12 double-doubles and also recorded 40+ assists on four occasions. Over the course of the season, she appeared in 105 sets and recorded 657 setting assists, while ranking fifth in the E8 with 6.25 assists per-set average. She also tallied 236 digs, with 18 aces, 37 kills and 16 total blocks. She added a personal-best and team leading 47 setting assists vs. SUNY Oneonta with 15 digs in the match. She also added a season-high 16 digs vs. Mount St. Mary during the season.

Head Women's Volleyball Coach Sandy Augstein-Collins noted about her honoree, "Our Gator Award winner stepped into a very difficult situation early in the season, stepped up in a huge way, and went on to make an impact upon the team." She added, "Statia took over the starting setter position in the second match of our season due to an injury to a teammate.  This was a position that was relatively unknown to Statia but she took the bull by the horns and never looked back.  She worked so hard to learn a new position and to learn how to lead a team from the setter position."