Valpo volleyball libero Rylee Cookerly (Brownsburg, Ind./Brownsburg) was named the athletic department’s fall recipient of the State Farm MVC Good Neighbor Award for her work in the classroom and in the community as the conference office announced the fall season honorees Monday.

Cookerly is currently enrolled in Valpo’s DNP program after graduating with her bachelor’s degree in nursing with a 3.96 GPA this past May. She was the MVC volleyball Scholar-Athlete of the Year for the spring 2021 season and was also a CoSIDA Second Team Academic All-American. She is a three-time Academic All-District honoree, has been named to the MVC Scholar-Athlete First Team three times and was awarded the MVC Presidents' Council Academic Excellence Award this past July.

On campus, Cookerly is a member of Valpo’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee. Cookerly volunteers at St. Teresa of Avila’s Café Manna, a community outreach program serving hot meals to the Valparaiso community, and at the Hilltop Neighborhood House. She has assisted with Valpo’s on-campus volleyball camps and has helped run volleyball youth clinics at the YMCA as well.