Big South Announces 2017 Volleyball Annual Awards
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (www.BigSouthSports.com) – Radford senior outside hitter Maddie Palmer (Simpsonville, S.C.) has been voted the 2017 Big South Conference Volleyball Player of the Year, while High Point head coach Tom Mendoza was selected Coach of the Year by the league’s head coaches, it was announced this afternoon by the conference office. In addition, Panthers’ libero Abby Bottomley (Virginia Beach, Va.) was voted Freshman of the Year, and High Point’s Haley Barnes (Neenah, Wis.) was selected Scholar-Athlete of the Year by the league’s sports information directors.
Palmer is the second consecutive back-to-back Big South Player of the Year honoree as she received five first-place votes and 148 total points. She was a three-time Big South Player of the Week selection in 2017, and was second in the conference with 392 kills and 3.96 kills per set, as well as second with 445.5 points and 4.50 points per set. In conference matches, Palmer put down 232 kills (4.07 per set), 259.5 points (4.55 per set) and ranked in the top 10 in digs for both overall (354, 3.58 per set) and conference-only matches (223, 3.91 per set). During the regular-season, she tallied five 20-kill matches, including 24 in a victory over South Carolina. She also posted 18 double-doubles, highlighted by a 16-kill, 10-dig effort in a win at Arizona, and 16 kills with 26 digs vs. Campbell. Palmer had 15 consecutive double-digit kill performances this year, hit better than .300 in 12 matches and accounted for at least 20 points in seven appearances. Palmer also earned a spot on the All-Conference First-Team and finished ahead of High Point teammates Molly Livingston (143 points and one first-place vote) and Haley Barnes (121 points and two first-place votes) in the Player of the Year voting
Mendoza collects his first Big South Coach of the Year honor as he led the Panthers to the Big South’s first-ever 16-0 conference finish as well as the program’s first outright regular-season championship in just his second year at the helm. High Point won 48 of 52 sets played in league competition -- including eight consecutive 3-0 sweeps -- and enters this week’s Big South Championship on an 18-match win streak as the No. 1 seed. The Panthers lead the Big South in hitting percentage (.258), kills (13.56), assists (12.64) and service aces (1.74), and rank second in opponent offense allowed (.160). Mendoza’s squad defeated Power 5 members Oklahoma (3-0) and Georgia (3-1) during the regular-season, and is currently No. 44 in the NCAA RPI. In conference matches, HPU was tops with a .296 hitting percentage, 2.08 service aces per set and limited league foes to .124 hitting clip. Mendoza finished with seven first-place votes and 21 points, ahead of Radford’s Marci Jenkins (12 points) and UNC Asheville’s Frederico Santos (eight points and two first-place votes).
Bottomley is High Point’s third Freshman of the Year honoree in five seasons, and was a six-time Big South weekly honoree in 2017 -- four Defensive Player of the Week selections and two Freshman of the Week nods. Bottomley paced the Big South with 5.24 digs per set -- the lone player above 5.00 -- and increased her total to 5.40 digs per set in league contests. Bottomley recorded double-digit digs in all but one of her 29 appearances this season, which included a streak of 25 straight to open her collegiate career. She had 11 matches with at least 20 digs, including 35 in a four-set victory at Liberty. Bottomley received six first-place votes and 52 total points, ahead of Libety’s Amaya Williams (one first-place vote and 33 points) and teammate Katie Doering (32 points).
Barnes is a 3.711 student in Exercise Science and is a finalist for the Senior CLASS Award. A four-time Millis Scholar-Athlete at High Point, she led the Big South with 0.49 services aces per set during the regular-season and ranked in the top 10 in kills and points.
The conference also announced on Wednesday the complete All-Conference Team, which features a seven-member First- and Second-Team and five-member Honorable Mention squad (plus any ties), as well as the All-Freshman Team and All-Academic Team, all of which are listed below. The 2017 Big South Volleyball Championship presented by Musco Sports Lighting begins Friday, Nov. 17 with two quarterfinal matches from the Dedmon Center on the campus of Radford University.
2017 Big South Conference Volleyball Award Winners
First-Team All-Conference
Maddie Palmer, OH, Sr., Radford
Molly Livingston, MB, Jr, High Point
Haley Barnes, OH, Sr., High Point
Abby Bottomley, LIB, High Point
Cara Guthrie, OH, Jr., UNC Asheville
Anna Gragg, MB, Soph., Liberty
Allena Heath, OH, Soph., Campbell
Second-Team All-Conference
Haley Kleespies, S, Jr., Radford
Casey Goodwin, OH, Soph., Liberty
Katie Tylman, RS, Jr., High Point
Summer Schuitema, S, Sr., Campbell
Stephanie Neast, OPP, Soph., Radford
Keaupono Fey, MB, Sr., Winthrop
Kayla Schanback, LIB, Sr., Campbell
Honorable Mention All-Conference
Jessica Stocking, OH, Jr., Campbell
Phoebe Wu, OH, Jr., Winthrop
Jordan Hefner, MB, Jr., High Point
Valerie Gonzalez, OH, Jr., Radford
Siani Yamaguchi, S, Soph., Winthrop
All-Freshman Team
Abby Bottomley, LIB, High Point
Amaya Williams, S, Liberty
Katie Doering, RS, High Point
Ava Venema, MB, UNC Asheville
Hannah Schneggenburger, MB, Campbell
Kalysia Bates, MB, Charleston Southern
Allie Wright, MH, Presbyterian College
All-Academic Team
Summer Schuitema, S, Sr., Campbell
Kylie Klein, MB, Sr., Charleston Southern
Amanda Sahm, S, Jr., Gardner-Webb
Haley Barnes, OH, Sr., High Point
Anna Willey, S, Gr., Liberty
Ashton Stewart, MB, Sr., Presbyterian
Kaylor Nash, DS/L, Sr., Radford
Carter Kennedy, S, Soph., UNC Asheville
Carlie Skelton, DS, Jr., Winthrop
Player of the Year
Maddie Palmer, OH, Sr., Radford
Freshman of the Year
Abby Bottomley, LIB, High Point
Coach of the Year
Tom Mendoza, High Point
Scholar-Athlete of the Year
Haley Barnes, OH, Sr., High Point