Big South Announces 2018 Volleyball Annual Awards
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (www.BigSouthSports.com) –- High Point senior middle blocker Molly Livingston (Sun Prairie, Wis.) has been voted the 2018 Big South Conference Volleyball Player of the Year, while Winthrop head coach Chuck Rey was selected Coach of the Year by the league’s head coaches, it was announced this afternoon by the conference office. In addition, Campbell outside hitter Sarah Colla (Carlsbad, Calif.) was voted Freshman of the Year, and Gardner-Webb’s Amanda Sahm (Marion, Iowa) was selected Scholar-Athlete of the Year by the league’s sports information directors.
Livingston is the first Panther to voted Big South Player of the Year, as she received eight first-place votes and 170 total points. She was a two-time Big South Player of the Week selection in 2018, and was the conference’s overall leader with a .367 hitting percentage in 95 sets played. Livingston also ranked in the top six in the Big South in points per set (fourth – 3.73), service aces per set (fourth – 0.40), blocks per set (fifth – 0.98), and kills per set (sixth – 2.75). She finished the regular-season with 261 kills, 38 service aces, 93 total blocks and 354 points. In conference matches, Livingston posted a .405 hitting clip in 51 sets to rank second in the league. She also tallied 1.02 blocks (fourth), 3.69 points (fifth) and 0.33 aces (sixth). Livingston had 14 double-digit kill matches, hit better than .400 14 times -- including eight matches above .500, and notched six matches with at least five blocks -- including 11 in a three-set sweep of USC Upstate. Livingston also earned a spot on the All-Conference First-Team and finished ahead of Radford’s Mallory McKnight (127 points) and Hampton’s Megann Delgado (125 points and the two remaining first-place votes) for Player of the Year honors.
Rey collects his first Big South Coach of the Year honor in his first year at the helm of the Eagles, as he led Winthrop to an 11-5 Big South record -- the program’s most conference wins since 2011. Winthrop bounced back from a 0-6 start to the season and won 15 of its final 22 matches. The Eagles were the lone Big South squad to defeat regular-season champion High Point -- which featured two, 3-0 sweeps of the Panthers. Winthrop finished third in the Big South standings, its highest regular-season finish since 2011, and ranked in the league’s top five in overall hitting percentage (fourth) and opponent hitting percentage (fourth), as well as first in digs (17.41), third in assists (12.08) and kills (13.11), and fifth in service aces (1.48). The Eagles were tops in conference matches with 18.29 digs per set, in addition to second in kills (13.71), and assists (12.54), and third in aces (1.59) and hitting percentage (.194) against league foes. Rey finished with four first-place votes and 20 points, just ahead of High Point’s Ryan Meek (18 points and three first-place votes) and Radford’s Marci Byers (14 points and two first-place votes).
Colla is Campbell’s first Big South Freshman of the Year honoree, and was the Big South Freshman of the Week winner on Sept. 24. She set a Big South five-set match record with 35 kills in the Camels’ win at Charleston Southern on Sept. 21, and posted a double-double of 28 kills and 10 digs at USC Upstate earlier this month. Overall, Colla was third in the Big South with 340 kills and 3.98 kills per set, second in points with 397 and 4.18 per set, and seventh in service aces with 0.32. She concluded her first year with seven double-doubles, had three matches with at least 20 points, and recorded five matches with at least five blocks. In conference action, Colla paced the Big South with 0.46 service aces per set (27 in 59), was second in kills (226) and kills per set (3.83), as well as second in points (272) and points per set (4.61). Colla received five first-place votes and 57 total points in the freshman voting, ahead of High Point’s Madison Smith (three first-place votes and 51 points) and Presbyterian’s Erin Cooke (two first-place votes and 45 points).
Sahm is a 4.0 student in Exercise Science and will graduate early in December. GWU’s primary setter, she played in all 111 of Gardner-Webb’s sets in 2018, and was tops on the squad with 23 service aces and second with 255 digs. Her 6.31 assists per set ranked seventh overall in the league.
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 2018 Big South Volleyball Championship presented by Musco Sports Lighting begins Friday, Nov. 16 with two quarterfinal matches from the Justice Center on the campus of UNC Asheville.
2018 Big South Conference Volleyball Award Winners
First-Team All-Conference
Molly Livingston, MB, Sr., High Point
Mallory McKnight, MB, Jr., Radford
Megann Delgado, RS, Jr., Hampton
Stephanie Neast, OPP, Jr., Radford
Cara Guthrie, OH, Sr., UNC Asheville
Siani Yamaguchi, S, Jr., Winthrop
Abby Bottomley, LIB, Soph., High Point
Second-Team All-Conference
Jordan Hefner, MB, Sr., High Point
Sarah Colla, OH, Fr., Campbell
Lily Dempsey, RS, Soph., USC Upstate
Gloria Ikenegbu, MB, Jr., USC Upstate
Julia Borges, RS, Jr., UNC Asheville
Haley Kleespies, S, Sr., Radford
Madison Martin, LIB, Sr., Charleston Southern
Honorable Mention All-Conference
Emily Russell, MB, R-Soph., USC Upstate
Phoebe Wu, OH, Sr., Winthrop
Lourdes Rosario, OH, Sr., Winthrop
Katie Tylman, RS, Sr., High Point
Valerie Gonzalez, OH, Sr., Radford
All-Freshman Team
Sarah Colla, OH, Campbell
Madison Smith, OH, High Point
Erin Cooke, S/RS, Presbyterian
Grace Green, LIB, Radford
Lily Leistiko, MB, Winthrop
Hannah Donaldson, MB, Gardner-Webb
Grace Volk, S, UNC Asheville
All-Academic Team
Madison Linxwiler, MB, Sr., Campbell
Hannah Western, OH, Sr., Charleston Southern
Amanda Sahm, S, Sr., Gardner-Webb
Maja Petronijevic, LIB, Sr., Hampton
Katie Tylman, RS, Sr., High Point
Valerie Gonzalez, RS, Sr., Radford
Carter Kennedy, S, Jr., UNC Asheville
Madison Haake, S., Sr., USC Upstate
Carlie Skelton, DS, Sr., Winthrop
Player of the Year
Molly Livingston, MB, Sr., High Point
Freshman of the Year
Sarah Colla, OH, Campbell
Coach of the Year
Chuck Rey, Winthrop
Scholar-Athlete of the Year
Amanda Sahm, S, Sr., Gardner-Webb