Best of Both Worlds – Stanford Cardinal

STANFORD, Calif. – Caitie Baird has been named the Pac-12 Women’s Volleyball Scholar-Athlete of the Year for the 2023 season, the conference announced today.

The award is presented in each of the 24 sports sponsored by the Pac-12 and was established to honor collegiate student-athletes that are standouts both academically and in their sports discipline.

Baird graduated in June with a degree in human biology with a 3.80 cumulative GPA. She is currently working towards her master’s in communications. The Indianapolis native is a CSC First Team Academic All-American and two-time All-District pick. She is also a three-time Pac-12 Academic Honor Roll selection and was named the NIL Summit Scholar-Athlete of the Year in 2023.

On the court, Baird is a 2019 NCAA champion and three-time Pac-12 champion. The outside hitter is an AVCA Second Team All-American and a three-time VolleyballMag.com All-American. A four-time All-Pac-12 Conference honoree, she’s also a four-time Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Week. The 22nd player in program history to register 1,000 career kills, she ranks 10th in the Pac-12 this season with 0.35 aces per set.

Off the court, Baird has been involved in several campus and community organizations. She currently conducts research in the Social Media Lab and serves as a floater coach at Encore Volleyball Club. Baird has volunteered for The Primary School in Palo Alto Fitness Club and was a member of the Stanford Dance Marathon in 2019. She was the VP of Health, Wellness and Accountability for Alpha Phi in 2021 and served at the Social Chair, putting on fundraisers such as the Red Dress Gala for Women’s Hearth Health.
 
Baird is the fifth Pac-12 Women’s Volleyball Scholar-Athlete of the Year from Stanford in the past six years, following Tami Alade (2018), Morgan Hentz (2019), Meghan McClure (2020) and Holly Campbell (2021), and the seventh Cardinal overall. The award was first established during the 2008-09 academic year.

In order to be eligible for the Pac-12 Scholar-Athlete of the Year award, student-athletes must be a senior (in athletics eligibility), on track to receive a degree, have a cumulative grade-point average of 3.0 or higher, participate in at least 50 percent of the scheduled contests in the sport and have a minimum one year in residence at the institution. Each Pac-12 institution may nominate one individual per sport, and the winners are selected by a committee of Pac-12 staff members at the conclusion of each sport’s regular…