The American Volleyball Coaches Association on Tuesday announced its 31st annual Division I region teams and awards, which include the top 14 players, coach of the year, freshman of the year, and six honorable mentions in 10 geographical regions:
East: Resurgent Creighton may be in Omaha, but it plays in the Big East and hauled in six awards, as Lydia Dimke, Taryn Kloth, Marysa Wilkinson, and Jaali Winters all made the team, libero Brittany Witt was freshman of the year as well as honorable mention, and Kirsten Bernthal Booth was coach of the year.
East Coast: North Carolina’s Taylor Leath, Julia Scoles, and Taylor Treacy are on the East Coast team, Julia Scoles is the top freshman, and Joe Sagula coach of the year.
Midwest: Kansas’ Ainise Havili, Kelsie Payne, Madison Rigdon, and Cassie Wait were listed with the top 14 players of the region and Tayler Soucie earned an honorable mention.
North: No surprise here, as Nebraska landed nearly its entire starting roster on the all-region team, including Mikaela Foecke, Briana Holman, Kelly Hunter, Amber Rolfzen, Kadie Rolfzen and Justine Wong-Orantes. Nebraska’s John Cook is coach of the year.
Northeast: Wisconsin cleaned up with Lauren Carlini, Molly Haggerty, Haleigh Nelson, and Tionna Williams on the all-region team, Haggerty is freshman of the year and Wisconsin’s Kelly Sheffield is the coach of the year.
Pacific North: Stanford led with Inky Ajanaku, Merete Lutz, and Kathryn Plummer, who was also the top freshman. Audriana Fitzmorris got an honorable mention.
Pacific South: UCLA and BYU earned the lion’s share of the awards here, as UCLA landed Taylor Formico, Jennie Frager, and Torrey Van Winden on the all-region team, as well as Jordan Anderson and Reily Buechler receiving honorable mention.
BYU’s McKenna Miller was both all-region and freshman of the year, Amy Boswell was all-region, and Heather Olmstead was coach of the year. Whitney Young Howard received an honorable mention.
South: Texas A&M not only had Stephanie Aiple, Jazzmin Babers, and Kaitlyn Blake named to the all-region team, but Hollann Hans was listed as freshman of the year and honorable mention.
Southeast: Florida placed five players on the all-region team, Rhamat Alhassan, Alex Holston, Caroline Knop, Allie Monserez, and Carli Snyder.
Southwest: Texas scored big as Chloe Collins, Ebony Nwanebu, Paulina Prieto Cerame, and Micaya White received all-region honors. Some might be surprised to see that Catherine Repsher of Southern Miss was given the freshman of the year award over standout Micaya White, but only true freshmen are eligible for the award.
Nebraska’s Kadie Rolfzen, Wisconsin’s Carlini, Stanford’s Ajanaku, Alabama’s Krystal Rivers, Florida’s Alex Holston, and Missouri’s Carly Kan are all four-time recipients of AVCA regional recognition.
Three-time recipients are Abbey Bessler of Xavier, Katie Brand of Kansas State, Ainise Havili of Kansas, Lily Johnson of Missouri State, Abbie Lehman of Wichita State, Autumn Bailey of Michigan State, Briana Holman of Nebraska, Haleigh Nelson of Wisconsin, Taylor Sandbothe of Ohio State, Lutz of Stanford, Boswell of BYU, Penina Snuka of Arizona, Babers and Aiple of Texas A&M, Alyssa Cavanaugh and Jessica Lucas of Western Kentucky, Alhassan of Florida, Marion Hazelwood of Oklahoma, and Markie Schaedig of Arkansas State.
Two-time recipients include Corinne Bain of Harvard, Katie Horton of Florida State, Winters of Creighton, Janey Goodman of James Madison, Taylor Louis of Marquette, Treacy of North Carolina, Jordan Tucker of Duke, Teegan Van Gunst of Georgia Tech, Kelsie Payne of Kansas, Danielle Rygelski of Saint Louis, Foecke, Hunter, Amber Rolfzen, Wong-Orantes of Nebraska, Samantha Seliger-Swenson and Hannah Tapp of Minnesota, Faye Adelaja and Danielle Cuttino of Purdue, Haleigh Washington of Penn State, Mary-Kate Marshall of Oregon State, Sierra Nobley of Boise State, Nikki Taylor of Hawaii, Taylor Formico of UCLA, Lisa Kramer of San Diego, Sarah Sponcil of Loyola Marymount, Jesse Earl of Auburn, Kaz Brown/Ashley Dusek of Kentucky, Carli Snyder of Florida, Daja Boskovic of UTSA, Collins, Cerame and Nwanebu of Texas, Marion Hazelwood of Oklahoma, Markie Schaedig of Arkansas State, Ashley Smith of TCU, and Mallory Warrington of Arkansas State.
Freshman-of-the-year honors also went to Brittany Witt of Creighton, Payton Caffrey of West Virginia, Alexis Hart of Minnesota, Leah Edmond of Kentucky, and Catherine Repsher of Southern Miss.
Other coaches of the year included Melissa Stokes of Missouri State, Shawn Garus of Boise State, Travis Hudson of Western Kentucky, Wayne Kreklow of Missouri, and Amanda Berkley of Southern Miss.
Click here for the full AVCA all-region list.
