LOUDONVILLE, NY – Maxwell Acri of Siena Men's Tennis and Sara Wagner of Saints Volleyball took the spotlight for the month of November as both were named the Leo Dufort Student-Athletes of the Month.
 
Acri, a senior from Fort Myers, FL, is off the heels of a 10-win Fall 2024 campaign in combined singles and doubles play that included matches in the Siena Invitational, Colgate Invite, MAAC Masters Tournament at Quinnipiac, the ITA Northeast Regionals at Harvard and the NateRentals.com Mock Duals in Vestal, NY.
 
Scholastically, Acri is already a two-time MAAC All-Academic Team member and a three-time MAAC Honor Roll member as well as an ITA All-Academic Scholar.  Acri held a 3.94 spring term GPA to make the President's List (requires a term GPA of 3.9 to 3.99) and improved his cumulative GPA to 3.60 as a Finance major.
 
Wagner, a senior from Bielsko-Biala, Poland, earned All-Tournament Team nods from the Skyhawk Invitational and the Red Flash Classic while eventually going on to become the 10^th player in program history to accrue 1,000 career kills against Manhattan on Oct. 5.  Wagner finished with 336 kills (2.86 kills per set) and 207 digs (1.95 digs per set). 
 
In the classroom, Wagner was one of 42 student-athletes who was a member of the prestigious 4.0 club for her spring 2024 term.  The Health Studies Administration major upped her cumulative GPA to 3.55. 
 
The Leo Dufort Student Athlete of the Month Award is presented nine times annually (September-May) throughout the academic year. The award recognizes exemplary achievements in both academics and athletics. The late Leo Dufort received a B.S. in marketing and management from Siena in August of 1977. His entire academic career was completed on a part-time basis beginning in the spring of 1961, as a married adult while at the same time raising five children. He passed away suddenly of a heart attack while cross country skiing in February of 1993. His wife Jeanine wanted to do something to immortalize his memory. The original plaque was donated to athletics and the department began the Leo Dufort Student Athlete of the Month Award to help carry out his legacy. Dufort graduated from Catholic Central High School in 1954 and was a Navy Veteran (USS Bennington) who worked for JL Hammett Co. at the time of his death.