With the season over, time to start this thread up.
1st news- BIG congrats to seniors Abu and Smith for the well earned honors!
Direct link - https://cubuffs.com/news/2018/12/4/volleyball-abu-and-smith-named-avca-all-region-first-team.aspx
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LEXINGTON, Ky. – For just the third time in school history, the University of Colorado women's volleyball team has a pair of players named to the American Volleyball Coaches Association All-Pacific South Region First Team with Alexa Smith and Naghede Abu being named to the honor Tuesday morning.
The is the second-straight set of honors for the senior duo as both were named to the All-Pac-12 First Team a week ago.
Smith becomes the first player in the Pac-12 era in CU history to be named back-to-back All-Region First Team honors and just the seventh player to do so in program history. She is the first since Allie Griffin in 2005 to earn two-straight honors and could join Griffin as the only players to earn two AVCA All-American honors in a career.
Smith closes out her career with Colorado with the seventh-most kills in school history with 1,329 in just three seasons. She took the seventh-most swings in school history with 3,732, had the 15th-most digs in a career with 991, finishes 34th in school history in blocks, 24th in aces and 26th in career hitting percentage. Smith also finished with the second-most kills and attacks in the rally scoring era, eighth-most aces, 19th-most blocks and fourth-most digs.
Abu earns her first All-Region First Team honor, becoming just the 14th player to earn such an honor for CU. Abu capped off her senior season with the most blocks in conference play in school history with 114. She also had the second-highest season hitting percentage ever at .394, trailing only setter Kelly Campbell, and set the match-record in blocks with 17 against Oregon State this season.
Abu finishes her career as the all-time career block leader in school history with 582. She also passes Campbell in career hitting percentage with a final mark of .332 to finish as the school record holder. Abu tied the school record in conference sets played in a career with 317, missing only a single match in the Pac-12 her freshman season. She also finished with the best plus-minus advantage in school history, putting her name on 1,415 points scored with only 269 errors in her career for a plus-minus of 1,146 total points.
Abu joins Smith in an elite group of women to have been named All-Region First Team. Since the beginning of the rally scoring era in 2001, six women have earned All-Regional First Team honors for CU eight times, with Abu and Smith making the mark seven women for 10 honors. All six of the prior women were named AVCA All-Americans at some level of honor and tallied seven total AVCA All-American honors in that span.
This is just the third time in school history that a pair of teammates were named All-Region First Team. The last occasion happened in 2001 with Elizabeth Gower and Meghan Barkman, with the first-time happening in 1993 with Karrie Downey and Nicole Vranesh.
BYU swept the regional awards with the Player of the Year (Roni Jones-Perry), Freshman of the Year (Heather Gneiting) and Coach of the Year (Heather Olmstead). The Cougars tallied five of the 14-person Pacific South Region Team, with USC taking three honors.
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1st news- BIG congrats to seniors Abu and Smith for the well earned honors!
Direct link - https://cubuffs.com/news/2018/12/4/volleyball-abu-and-smith-named-avca-all-region-first-team.aspx
"
LEXINGTON, Ky. – For just the third time in school history, the University of Colorado women's volleyball team has a pair of players named to the American Volleyball Coaches Association All-Pacific South Region First Team with Alexa Smith and Naghede Abu being named to the honor Tuesday morning.
The is the second-straight set of honors for the senior duo as both were named to the All-Pac-12 First Team a week ago.
Smith becomes the first player in the Pac-12 era in CU history to be named back-to-back All-Region First Team honors and just the seventh player to do so in program history. She is the first since Allie Griffin in 2005 to earn two-straight honors and could join Griffin as the only players to earn two AVCA All-American honors in a career.
Smith closes out her career with Colorado with the seventh-most kills in school history with 1,329 in just three seasons. She took the seventh-most swings in school history with 3,732, had the 15th-most digs in a career with 991, finishes 34th in school history in blocks, 24th in aces and 26th in career hitting percentage. Smith also finished with the second-most kills and attacks in the rally scoring era, eighth-most aces, 19th-most blocks and fourth-most digs.
Abu earns her first All-Region First Team honor, becoming just the 14th player to earn such an honor for CU. Abu capped off her senior season with the most blocks in conference play in school history with 114. She also had the second-highest season hitting percentage ever at .394, trailing only setter Kelly Campbell, and set the match-record in blocks with 17 against Oregon State this season.
Abu finishes her career as the all-time career block leader in school history with 582. She also passes Campbell in career hitting percentage with a final mark of .332 to finish as the school record holder. Abu tied the school record in conference sets played in a career with 317, missing only a single match in the Pac-12 her freshman season. She also finished with the best plus-minus advantage in school history, putting her name on 1,415 points scored with only 269 errors in her career for a plus-minus of 1,146 total points.
Abu joins Smith in an elite group of women to have been named All-Region First Team. Since the beginning of the rally scoring era in 2001, six women have earned All-Regional First Team honors for CU eight times, with Abu and Smith making the mark seven women for 10 honors. All six of the prior women were named AVCA All-Americans at some level of honor and tallied seven total AVCA All-American honors in that span.
This is just the third time in school history that a pair of teammates were named All-Region First Team. The last occasion happened in 2001 with Elizabeth Gower and Meghan Barkman, with the first-time happening in 1993 with Karrie Downey and Nicole Vranesh.
BYU swept the regional awards with the Player of the Year (Roni Jones-Perry), Freshman of the Year (Heather Gneiting) and Coach of the Year (Heather Olmstead). The Cougars tallied five of the 14-person Pacific South Region Team, with USC taking three honors.
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