Winthrop Volleyball Honored with All-Region Awards from AVCA
By Winthrop Athletics
ROCK HILL, S.C. -- Winthrop Volleyball Head Coach
Heather Gearhart was named as the AVCA Southeast Region Coach of the Year, as senior outside/opposite
Avery Jolley was named to the AVCA Southeast Region Honorable Mention squad, the American Volleyball Coaches Association announced on Tuesday morning.
With the honors, Gearhart becomes the first AVCA Region Coach of the Year in Winthrop History, and only the second ever in the Big South, the first to do so since Tom Mendoza of High Point in 2017.
Jolley becomes the first Eagle to garner the honors since Siani Yamaguchi did so in 2019, and the fifth in Winthrop history.
Gearhart engineered one of the better seasons in Winthrop Volleyball in the Big South, guiding Winthrop to an 18-7 record and being honored with the Big South Coach of the Year, a 12-2 conference mark, and the program's first regular-season title since 2019. Her group dominated at home (10-1), ripped off 10 straight league wins, and secured the No. 1 seed while developing multiple all-conference performers across every position group.
Jolley's 2025 season is one for the record books, as she tied the program record with 30 kills in a single match in her final regular season game, reaching 1,000 career kills, and crept into the top ten in numerous Winthrop career marks. Jolley finished the slate with 380 kills for 3.76 per set, also leading the conference with 4.26 points per set. Her dominance was recognized all year with a sweep of preseason honors, Big South Preseason Player of the Year and Preseason All-Conference, plus spots on the Winthrop Invitational, Furman Invitational and Big South Conference Tournament All-Tournament Teams, and four Big South Player of the Week awards, a feat which only two Eagles have done in a single season (Mary Hock, 2004 & Becca Toor, 2011), and capped off by the first Eagle since 2019 to win the Big South Player of the Year honors.