Ariel Turner is a beast on the court and in the classroom. This season, she joined an elite class of Boilermakers by earning 1,000 career digs and 1,000 career kills, a very rare accomplishment. She also would probably dominate you in thermodynamics, as this Mechanical Engineering major just earned first-team Academic All-American and now Academic All-American of the Year.

Though she may have lost the Lowe's Senior Class Award, she earned this award through her hard work on the court, but most importantly in the classroom. It isn't easy being a student athlete these days, with the pressure to perform well during the game, participate in long and grueling practices, road trips across the country, and then be expected to take an exam after all of that. Yet somehow, Ariel Turner showed us that it is possible to pull it off with a difficult major and still be the best. She is the first Purdue athlete to win the award since Drew Brees in 2000.

Turner now needs one of the largest trophy cases of all Purdue athletes. This year, along with her prestigious academic honor, she has earned 2nd team All American, Unanimous All-Big Ten, AVCA All-Mideast Region, and being named to the West Lafayette Regional All-Tournament team. Let's not forget her awards last year: 1st team All-American, 2nd team Academic All-American, AND Big Ten Player of the Year.

This year though, we lose Ariel Turner to graduation. She has left a tremendous legacy in West Lafayette that will be tough to fill in the coming years, both on the court and in the classroom.