PHILADELPHIA – Swarthmore College Volleyball seniors Mehra den Braven and Emma Morgan-Bennett earned 2019 Philadelphia Inquirer Academic All-Area Volleyball Team honors on Wednesday. The student-athletes represents two of eight student-athletes from the 30 Division I, II, and III colleges and universities in the Philadelphia metropolitan area.
 
The Academic All-Area team represents that sport's top student-athletes as selected by the sports information directors of those schools. Both academic and athletic success is taken into consideration in the voting, and in order to be eligible for the team, student-athletes must be sophomores or older with GPAs of 3.2 or higher.
 
Den Braven, an outside hitter majoring in economics, received Academic All-Area accolades for the third time in her career, including Performer of the Year honors in 2017. She added CoSIDA Academic All-District honors three times in her career. The senior, named second team All-Centennial, registered 263 kills on 868 attack attempts in 2019. Den Braven ranked fifth all-time for career kills with 1,112 and sixth with 3,209 attack attempts.
 
Morgan-Bennett, a middle blocker majoring in medical anthropology, earns Academic All-Area distinction for the first time. The senior, a honoree on the All-Centennial second team, recorded 195 kills, 27 solo blocks and 53 block assist in 28 matches played. She was named to her second consecutive AVCA Mid-Atlantic Region team. Morgan-Bennett finishes her career ranked second all-time in total blocks and assist blocks. The middle blocker ranks fourth on the all-time list with 80 solo blocks.
 
Den Braven, Morgan-Bennett and the Garnet volleyball team reached the Centennial Conference semi-finals and finished the season with a 16-12 record.
 
Joining den Braven and Morgan-Bennett on the team are Holy Family's Jillian Boyle and Carly Covington (Performer of the Year), Villanova's Emma Decker and Allie Olsonski, Haverford's Sara Matsumura and Eastern's Caroline Shelby.