WORCESTER, Mass. – Highlighted by Academic All-Patriot League selection senior setter Katie Russell, two members of the Holy Cross volleyball team were selected to the 2025 College Sports Communicators Academic All-District Team the organization announced on Tuesday afternoon.

In order to qualify for the CSC Academic All-District Team eligible nominees must have a 3.50 GPA or higher, be at least a sophomore academically and athletically, compete in 90 percent of the institution’s matches played or must start in at least 66 percent of the institution’s matches. Liberos, although not counted in stats as a starter, may be counted as such for nominating purposes.

Joining Russell on the CSC Academic All-District Team is sophomore middle blocker Lacey Murphy.  

Russell, a political science major with a 3.73 GPA, appeared in all 32 matches for the Crusaders in 2025, making 28 starts pacing the team in assists (821) and assists per set (6.73) while ranking second in aces (34), digs (233), and fourth in digs per set (1.91). This season, she climbed from not ranked to sixth place on the program’s career assist list (1,674). She finished the season ranking third in the Patriot League in assists (821) and third in assists per set (6.73).  

 

Russell has posted two of the top three single-match assist totals in the Patriot League this season. During the 3-1 victory over New Haven (Oct. 21, Russell recorded a Patriot League season-high 65 assists which is currently tied for the most in a 4-set match in the NCAA this season. She then dished out 57 assists in a 3-2 comeback win over Lafayette (Nov. 15), the 57 assists were the third most in a match in the Patriot League this season.

Murphy, who is undeclared recorded a 3.77 GPA played in 28 matches for the Crusaders earning 22 starts in the middle. Murphy paced the team in total blocks (86.0) which was eighth in the conference and blocks per set (0.96) which was ninth. In league games, Murphy came in at seventh in blocks per set (1.02) and eighth in total blocks (52.0). The sophomore finished 2025 ranked fifth on the program’s single-season blocks per set list (0.96) and seventh in single-season total blocks (86.0).

 

Murphy also tallied 121 kills and 1.34 kills per set while hitting .239 on the season. She recorded a career-high eight total blocks at Marist (Oct. 7) and hit .440 with a personal-best 13 kills in a win over New Haven (Oct. 21).

The 2025 Academic All-District® Volleyball teams, selected by College Sports Communicators, recognize the nation’s top student-athletes for their combined performances on the court and in the classroom. The CSC Academic All-America® program separately recognizes volleyball honorees in four divisions — NCAA Division I, NCAA Division II, NCAA Division III and NAIA.

 

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Morehead, Ky. – Morehead State Volleyball announces the addition of Newport, Kentucky, native Riley McCloskey to the roster for MSU Beach Volleyball this Spring and indoor for the Fall 2026 season.
 
McCloskey, a 2025 graduate of Kentucky high school powerhouse Notre Dame Academy in Park Hills, Kentucky, spent the 2025 season at Memphis. The 6-1 outside hitter appeared in 18 matches for the Tigers making eight starts. McCloskey slugged 70 kills averaging 1.63 kills per set. She notched season highs with 10 kills and six digs against Rice on October 5.
 
“We are excited to welcome Riley to the Morehead State Volleyball family,” said Morehead State head coach Kyrsten Becker-McBride. “We were able to watch her a lot when she was high school, and I was always impressed with the way she competed.  She brings her passion for volleyball to the court and knows what it takes to win.” 

McCloskey missed her most of her senior campaign at Notre Dame in 2024 due to injury. In 2022, as a sophomore at Notre Dame, she was part of a Panda team that won the Kentucky state championship. In 100 sets played, McCloskey tallied 223 kills, posting a .259 hitting percentage.

 

In her junior season at Notre Dame in 2023, McCloskey appeared in 93 sets, smacking 245 kills averaging 2.6 kills per set, while posting a .266 attack efficiency and helping lead the Pandas to the Kentucky high school state championship match.

 

McCloskey joins the Eagles with definite ties to Morehead State. Her mother, the former Megan Hupfer, was a standout for the Morehead State women’s basketball team from 1992-1996. In her four seasons at MSU, she poured in 1,444 points averaging 13.6 points per game and ranks 14^th on the MSU all-time scoring list. She sank 593 field goals in her career, ranking 10^th in program history. She scored 30 or more points 35 times in her career and was a 50% shooter from the floor over her career.

 

McCloskey’s former prep coach is Leslie Litmer (formerly Schellhaas), who starred at Morehead State as a defensive specialist from 2010-13. Schellhaas is Morehead State’s all-time leader with 2,232 career digs and set MSU’s top-three season highs in program history for digs her final three seasons at Morehead State.  She was named the Ohio Valley Conference Defensive Player of the Year in 2013 when she set the program record with 685 digs and helped lead the Eagles to their fourth consecutive OVC regular season championship and second OVC Tournament championship in three seasons.

 

 

 

OMAHA, Neb. — Little Merritt and big Merritt met Dec. 5. They share a cosmic connection, at first not evident on that Friday.

Little Merritt does not usually embrace strangers.

For the past nine months, Merritt Squire, soon to be 2, has waited for a new heart. When her doctors confirm a match, a team of cardiothoracic surgeons will fly from Omaha to secure the organ. If the call comes on Christmas, they will leave their families to save her life.

“We’re ready at a moment’s notice,” said Dr. Jason Cole, medical director of the advanced pediatric heart failure and transplant program at Children’s Nebraska.

Two to four weeks later, according to the plan, Merritt will leave the hospital for the first time since February. She has lived nearly half of her life in the cardiac intensive care unit here.

Sadness began to overwhelm Merritt’s mother, Mari Jo Squire, in the days before Thanksgiving. She uprooted her life in Indianola, Iowa, and quit her job. Mari Jo and her older daughter, 6-year-old Monica, stay at the Carolyn Scott Rainbow House, apartment-style residences provided for families of patients near the hospital at which Merritt receives care.

“It’s the holidays,” Mari Jo said. “We don’t even have our tree up at home.”

She sees friends on her social media feeds visiting Santa and taking their kids to look at Christmas lights.

“You start to feel one thing after another,” she said, “and you start to feel more sad.”

And then, Mari Jo said, “something like this happens.”

Her husband, Layton Squire, and his two teenage sons, live at home in Iowa. They drive two-plus hours to Omaha on weekends and for important moments — like on that Friday early this month when Merritt Beason stopped by Children’s Nebraska to see the Squire family.

Beason, 22, is a former first-team All-American who spent two seasons after a transfer from Florida as co-captain of the University of Nebraska volleyball team. The No. 1 pick in the November 2024 Pro Volleyball Federation draft, Beason signed in August with the Omaha Supernovas after one season with the Atlanta Vibe.

When Beason arrived in Omaha recently to begin training camp, officials from Children’s Nebraska and the Supernovas set up the meeting. After a quick standoff, little Merritt offered a few high fives. She held big Merritt’s hand and sat in her lap. They listened to little Merritt’s favorite songs and danced.

“The nurses shared with me that it doesn’t normally happen like that,” Beason said. “It was surreal, one of those humbling and grounding moments.”

Merritt Squire has been at Children’s Nebraska since February, awaiting a heart transplant. (Courtesy of Children’s Nebraska)

Merritt Squire was not the only baby tied to the Nebraska fan base who was named after Merritt Beason in 2023 and 2024. Little Merritt is the only one, though, to have spent an hour, just hanging out, with the 6-foot-4 opposite hitter.

“I think it’s an honor that we get to share the same name,” Beason said.

Beason granted Mari Jo a reason to smile. The visit allowed the Squires to feel normal, Mari Jo said. It reminded her that good things can happen for them.

“Never in a million years would I have thought my Merritt would meet big Merritt,” Mari Jo said. “It was a much-needed day, a very good day. We felt very loved. And it brought my spirits back up.”

Mari Jo and Layton met four years ago. Originally from Kansas, Mari Jo played volleyball and ran track at Nebraska-Kearney. Layton played football at Graceland University in Lamoni, Iowa.

She supported Nebraska. He cheered for Iowa. Nebraska volleyball united their fandom. Mari Jo was pregnant with their first child together in 2023. They learned late in the year that they were having a girl.

And while watching Beason and the Huskers in the NCAA Tournament two years ago, it hit them.

“We named her because of this person we saw on TV,” Mari Jo said. “We didn’t know her, but every time she spoke, she seemed so genuine.”

Three days after Nebraska lost against Texas in the national championship match, Merritt Squire was born. She was large at 10 pounds and suffered from shoulder dystocia during childbirth. For 85 seconds, she didn’t have air.

“But we took home what we thought was a normal baby,” Mari Jo said.

At 2 weeks old, Merritt refused to take milk. That night, she awoke screaming. Mari Jo unzipped her baby’s sleeper and saw her struggling for air. They rushed to Blank Children’s Hospital in Des Moines. Medical staff suspected a respiratory virus.

Her chest X-ray revealed an enlarged heart. One doctor, Amanda Jepson, studied the image and turned to face Mari Jo and Layton.

“You need to pick Omaha or Iowa City,” Jepson told them, “and we need to go now.”

They chose Omaha. Friends and family of Mari Jo’s lived nearby. An incoming winter storm grounded plans to travel by helicopter. They raced west on Interstate 80 in an ambulance. Merritt’s heart was functioning at 15 to 20 percent. Mari Jo cried throughout the ride as her parents followed. Nurses tending to Merritt told Mari Jo every few minutes that Merritt was OK.

“Looking back,” she said, “she was so close to not making it.”

In Omaha came the diagnosis: dilated cardiomyopathy. The primary chamber of Merritt’s heart had stretched and grown weak, unable to pump enough blood to the body. She was in heart failure. A genetic mutation caused the condition.

They spent 20 days surrounded by doctors and nurses during that first visit and returned home to Indianola with a medication plan for Merritt. She was slow to hit milestones in the first year of her life. Even eating wore her out.

The Squires stayed hopeful for nearly 13 months.

“Deep down inside,” Mari Jo said, “I knew she was struggling.”

Mari Jo Squire named her daughter Merritt after watching Merritt Beason at Nebraska. “Every time she spoke, she seemed so genuine.” (Courtesy of Children’s Nebraska)

On Feb. 20, 2025, they returned to Children’s Nebraska. Merritt had contracted RSV. She had an acute kidney injury, a result of the heart condition. More than once, Merritt’s morning heart rate reached 195 to 205. Doctors intubated her to prevent cardiac arrest. On March 5, she underwent open-heart surgery to install a Ventricular Assist Device — a Berlin Heart.

The VAD rests outside of Merritt’s body. It cannot be unplugged for more than 30 minutes at a time, but it provides the bridge to a transplant.

Without the VAD, Merritt would not have survived, Cole said. Optimistically, the doctor said he expects a patient like Merritt to wait nine to 12 months for a heart. Her time on the wait list, as of December, is within that range.

Factors in finding a match include time accrued on the list, geographic region, size of the heart required and other medical and genetic conditions.

Hours after confirmation, one surgical team at Children’s Nebraska will begin Merritt’s transplant procedure as the other team is airborne with the donor heart. The surgery in Omaha will require four to six hours.

Cole said the organ should last 20 to 25 years before replacement. In her first year after transplantation, Merritt must stay near her doctors in Omaha. Long term, Cole said he’s seen patients succeed in all areas of life.

“Merritt will have that,” Cole said. “We’re just waiting on the call to make it a reality.”

Before Merritt Beason was born, her parents welcomed a baby boy, Tanner. He suffered from hypoplastic left heart syndrome and lived for 14 days. Beason shared the story of the brother she never met with Cole and Mari Jo during her visit with the Squires.

“It brought tears to their eyes,” Beason said. “God is so intentional in how he uses us. It’s all connected. It makes me understand that my problems as a professional volleyball player are very slim.”

Beason didn’t connect only with little Merritt and her parents. Monica was there too.

“A bundle of joy,” Beason said. “We’re best friends now.”

Monica is making a bracelet for Beason, who studied in college with the intention of teaching third grade. She still wants to work with kids, but pro volleyball altered Beason’s path. Her season with the Supernovas begins in January.

The sport introduced her to the Squires. Beason will be back to see them, she said.

“One of the things that we could always do better is to provide those little snippets of joy for patients and parents through the holiday season,” Cole said. “Merritt coming here was one of those moments.”

Saturday is little Merritt’s second birthday. It comes one day before the NCAA women’s volleyball national championship match. The Squires’ favorite team won’t be in Kansas City, Mo., to play for the title. Nebraska, without Beason this year, lost its perfect season Sunday in a regional final against Texas A&M.

Mari Jo dreams this month about something more precious than a national championship. Printed on the red sweatshirt that she wore to meet Beason were five words: One day at a time.

Mari Jo is at peace with the waiting, but she struggles with what the end of it will represent.

“Being on the transplant list is a very hard thing to process,” she said. “I know there’s going to be another mom having the worst day of her life — and my child is getting a second chance at life.

“If it comes tomorrow, if it comes in another six months and my daughter stays healthy, that’s all I care about.”