Volleyball All-Conference USA Awards Announced
11/19/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Nov. 19, 2008
IRVING, Texas - Conference USA announced its 2008 all-conference first and second teams and postseason award winners for volleyball today, as selected by the conference's head coaches. The awards are announced on the eve of the 14th Annual C-USA Volleyball Championship, which is scheduled for Thursday through Sunday, Nov. 20-23, in Memphis, Tenn. The four-day, 12-team event will be hosted by the University of Memphis inside the Elma Roane Fieldhouse.
Rice, Tulane and UAB dominate the All-Conference honors and four of five individual award winners came from one of these programs.
C-USA's Player of the Year goes to Tulane senior Sara Radosevic. Radosevic, also a two-time All-C-USA first team pick, is one of four current C-USA players that have more than 1,000 kills and 1,000 digs. The 6-1 outside hitter owns 1,845 career kills, ranking eighth best in C-USA history, 1,087 career digs and 183 aces that rank fifth-best in the league's annals. Radosevic's kills and aces are second best in Green Wave history, while her career digs appear at No. 7. She also tops the charts at No. 2 in the league in kills (3.62) and points (4.13) per set this season.
Tulane senior Bridget Wells earns her second straight All-C-USA first team honor. Wells ranks second on the team in kills (330), kills per set (3.17) and attack percentage (.291), while sitting third on the club in blocks (78) and blocks per set (0.75). She also ranks ninth in C-USA in both kills per set and attack percentage. She became the 13th player in Tulane history to record 1,000 career kills earlier in the year and currently ranks 10th in the Green Wave record book with 1,158 kills. Wells also has 248 career blocks, and her 235 career block assists sits 11th in school history.
Repeating their All-C-USA second team merits from a year ago is Green Wave Jenn Miller and Jen Linder, while freshman Visnja Djurdjevic earns her first All-C-USA second team honor. Djurdjevic was also voted the league's Freshman of the Year, an honor Tulane has claimed three of the last four years. Djurdjevic ranks third on the team in kills per set with an average of 2.34, and average 2.80 points, 2.44 digs and a .229 hitting efficiency. The 6-1 outside hitter was named the conference's Offensive Player of the Week once and earned tournament MVP honors at the Allstate Sugar Bowl Classic.
Miller, the 2007 C-USA Libero of the Year, ranks sixth in the league in digs per set with 3.89 and has earned two C-USA Defensive Player of the Week honors. Her career dig figure blossomed to 1,493, for an average of 5.09 digs per set, which ranks No. 1 at Tulane and No. 3 in the conference.
Linder, a 6-0 middle blocker, registered a single-match attack percentage of .909 (10K-0E-11TA) against SMU on Oct. 12 ranks third best of all-time in overall and C-USA matches. The senior currently leads the league with a .476 hitting efficiency, ranks sixth in blocks (1.16) and 12th in service aces (0.23) per set against league foes.
This year's award winners led the Green Wave to the program's first outright regular season title with a 15-1 conference mark and an overall record of 24-5.
Rice accounts for six All-Conference honors, including three first team selections, two second-team honorees and one All-Freshman pick as well as the Libero of the Year in sophomore Tracey Lam. Lam was also voted to the All-C-USA second team. The 5-6 defensive specialist earned a league-best four Defensive Player of the Week honors and ranks 26th in the nation in digs, averaging 5.0 per set. Lam's 39 digs, for a five-game match, against UAB stands as a C-USA single-match high for 2008. Lam is 11 digs shy of 1,000.
First team accolades goes to Rice senior Karyn Morgan, junior Natalie Bogan and sophomore Meredith Schamun.
Morgan has had a solid senior campaign as she ranks among the top five in the league in two categories - points (3.87/fifth) and digs (3.44/fourth). She also has produced 12 double-doubles, fourth most in the league. Earlier this season, she joined the 1,000 kill and 1,000 dig club and currently owns 1,314 career kills and 1,185 career digs, figures that rank eighth- and sixth-best at Rice, respectively.
Bogan leads the Owls and ranks fifth in the conference in hitting percentage with an overall accuracy of .331. She also tops the club in points per set with 3.38, which ranks 11th in the league as well as second on the team in blocks (0.79) per set. She currently has 912 career kills and is 88 shy of 1,000.
At one point in the season, Schamun ranked among the nation's top three setters in assists per set. She enters championship week dishing out a league-best 11.56 assists per set, which currently ranks 11th in the country. Schamun's 59 assists in a four-game match against SMU is a C-USA single-match high for the season. She has accumulated 2,439 assists in only two seasons to rank sixth in school history.
Repeating her All-C-USA second team honor from a year ago is Rice senior Jessica Holderness . The 5-11 outside hitter ranks 13th and 15th in C-USA in kills (2.92) and digs (3.17) per set, respectively. She also owns nine double-doubles on the season and enters this week with 939 career kills and 945 career digs.
Owning a C-USA freshman best in hitting accuracy (.302) and kills (3.10) per set, Rice rookie Ashleigh McCord was the sixth Owl honored with an All-Freshman team selection. McCord also accounted for 3.32 points per set.
Taking 2008 Setter of the Year honors is UAB senior Nevena Stefanov. The two-time All-C-USA first team selection ranks as one of the top setters in program and C-USA history. She stands second at UAB and third in the league in career assists (5,562) and, earlier this season, became just the second Blazer to reach the 5,000-assist mark. She is also one of only two current setters in the league with more than 5,000 assists. This season, Stefanov ranks second in the conference with 11.02 assists per set and has been named the league's Setter of the Week twice and seven times in her career.
Joining Stefanov on the All-C-USA first team are seniors Ivana Bozic and Casey Dent. These three seniors have been part of the most successful era in UAB volleyball history, including three consecutive 20-win seasons, two Conference USA Tournament championship match appearances and one NCAA Tournament berth.
Bozic garnered national attention earlier this month when she was named the Collegiate Volleyball Update National Player of the Week on October 21. She ranks third in UAB history and ninth all-time in C-USA with 1,795 career kills and sixth in school annals with 1,307 digs. The four-time Conference USA Player of the Week selection became just the ninth player in program history to join the 1,000 kill, 1,000 dig club.
Dent ranks second all-time in Blazer annals with a .335 career attack percentage and ninth in school history with 1,234 kills. Dent's current .383 attack percentage (297K-57E-627TA) ranks third in Conference USA and 25th in the nation. In addition to second team all-conference honors last season, Dent has been honored three times on the Conference USA All-Academic Team and three times on the ESPN The Magazine/CoSIDA Academic All-Region Team.
Producing All-C-USA second team honors for the Blazers is senior Lilly Domingos. Domingos, the 2007 C-USA Newcomer of the Year, ranks seventh in the league in block per set (1.0) and was named Conference USA Defensive Player of the Week once.
Houston senior and three-time All-C-USA first team honoree Justin Farmer will wrap up her collegiate career as one of the conference's all-time best. The El Paso, Texas native enters championship week with 2,075 career kills and 1,522 career digs, figures that rank fourth and 10th best, respectively, on C-USA's career charts. She tops the league in points (4.71) and kills (4.29) and ranks 22nd in digs (2.55) per set.
Also earning All-C-USA first team honors for the Cougars is sophomore middle blocker Lucy Charuk. Charuk ranks 32nd in the NCAA in blocks per set with an average of 1.27. However, in league matches she tops the chart with 1.48 BPS and ranks 10th in points per set with 3.47. Wrapping up UH's honors is Ingrida Zauere, who was selected to the All-C-USA Freshman team after having a stellar rookie campaign. She averaged 2.69 kills per set, second most among league freshmen.
Memphis senior Laura Côté is the other C-USA setter with more than 5,000 career assists. Côté currently sports 5,920, a figure that ranks third best on the league's all-time charts. The two-time All-C-USA second team honoree is just 26 assists short of the No. 2 spot. Sophomore Emily Underwood was also named to the All-C-USA second team. She ranks third in the nation with 1.51 blocks per set. After accounting for 2.40 kills and 1.18 blocks per set, rookie Carolyn Baker wraps up the Tigers individual honors as she was voted to the All-C-USA Freshman team.
Tulsa outside hitter Jennifer Eichler is the 2008 Newcomer of the Year. Eichler, a 6-0 junior transfer from Western Nebraska Community College, averaged 3.11 kills and 3.62 points per set for the Golden Hurricane. Eichler was also named to the All-C-USA second team. Joining Eichler is teammate and senior outside hitter Beth Hodge, who was named to the All-C-USA first team. Hodge led Tulsa with 3.48 kills, 2.68 digs and 3.82 points per set. All-Freshmen honors went to setter Rachel Vukson, who ranked fourth in league matches with 10.98 assists per set.
Marshall's lone selection to the all-conference team is senior outside hitter Jalicia Ross. Ross, who was a 2007 second team pick, earned first-team accolades this season after ranking eighth in the nation in hitting percentage with an impressive .414. That ranks fifth on C-USA's single season charts.
Senior Stephanie Serna earned UCF's first All-C-USA honor as she was named to the second team after leading the Knights with 3.45 kills per set in league play. That figure ranks seventh right behind her .314 hitting efficiency that appears sixth best in the conference.
SMU and Southern Miss each placed a player on the All-Freshman team in Dana Powell and Lauren Sears, respectively. Powell ranked fourth among C-USA freshmen in kills (2.52) and digs (2.53) per set, while Sears ranked 19th in league matches with a .256 hitting percentage and 20th in service aces.
Co-Coach of the Year honors are awarded to Rice's Genny Volpe and Tulane's Liz Kritza. Kritza also tied for the award in 2007. The Green Wave tops the conference with a No. 1 seed, a stellar 15-1 C-USA record and an overall performance of 24-5. Tulane's 24-wins are the most in the league this season. Kritza led Tulane to the program's first C-USA regular season title and coached five players to all-conference honors, including the program's first Player of the Year selection in Radosevic.
Volpe earns her first C-USA Coach of the Year honor after guiding the Owls to a No.3 seed in this week's C-USA Championship. Volpe's club produced an overall record of 21-6 and went 12-4 in league play. The 12 conference victories are the most under Volpe as are the league-best six players earning all-conference awards.
Tulane followed Rice with five honorees, while four came from UAB and three from Tulsa. Houston and Memphis had two each, while Marshall, UCF, SMU and Southern Miss each had one all-conference honoree.
2008 C-USA VOLLEYBALL AWARDS
ALL-CONFERENCE TEAMS
All-Conference First Team
Lucy Charuk, So., MB, Houston
Justine Farmer, Sr., OH, Houston
Jalicia Ross, Sr., MB, Marshall
Natalie Bogan, Jr., MB, Rice
Karyn Morgan, Sr., OH, Rice
Meredith Schamun, So., S, Rice
Sara Radosevic, Sr, OH, Tulane
Bridget Wells, Sr., RS, Tulane
Beth Hodge, Sr., OH, Tulsa
Ivana Bozic, Sr., OH, UAB
Casey Dent, Sr., MB, UAB
Nevena Stefanov, Sr., S, UAB
All-Conference Second Team
Laura Côté, Sr., S, Memphis
Emily Underwood, So., MB, Memphis
Jessica Holderness, Sr., OH, Rice
Tracey Lam, So., L, Rice
Visnja Djurdjevic, Fr., OH, Tulane
Jen Linder, Sr., MB, Tulane
Jenn Miller, Jr., L, Tulane
Jennifer Eichler, Jr., OH, Tulsa
Lilly Domingos, Sr., MB, UAB
Stephanie Serna, Sr., RS, UCF
All-Freshman Team
Ingrida Zauere, MB, Houston
Carolyn Baker, MH, Memphis
Ashleigh McCord, MB, Rice
Dana Powell, OH, SMU
Lauren Sears, MS, Southern Miss
Visnja Djurdjevic, OH, Tulane
Rachel Vukson, S, Tulsa
INDIVIDUAL AWARDS
Newcomer of the Year
Jennifer Eichler, Tulsa
Freshman of the Year
Visnja Djurdjevic, Tulane
Libero of the Year
Tracey Lam, Rice
Setter of the Year
Nevena Stefanov, UAB
Player of the Year
Sara Radosevic, Tulane
Co-Coach of the Year
Liz Kritza, Tulane
Genny Volpe, Rice