Vansant POY, Matthies Sand COY
From the AVCA
The American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) is proud to announce that University of Washington junior outside hitter Krista Vansant has been selected as the 2013 AVCA Division I Player of the Year. The award was presented this afternoon at the AVCA All-America/Players of the Year Banquet presented by Northwestern Mutual, which was held in Seattle as part of the 2013 AVCA Annual Convention.
It was another impressive season for Vansant, who this season was named the Pac-12 Player of the Year. The junior led Washington to the Pac-12 title this year and was one of four Huskies named to the All-Pac-12 Team. Using her powerful right arm, Vansant led her Huskies all of the way to the NCAA Semifinals and a top-10 ranking in the AVCA Coaches Poll through the entirety of the season. In the quarterfinals against Southern California, the two-time AVCA All-American smashed 38 kills and tallied 30 digs on her way to being named the Los Angeles Region’s Most Outstanding Player.
Nina has retired from indoor team but will continue to coach sand
Pepperdine sand volleyball coach Nina Matthies was formally ecognized as the AVCA Collegiate Sand Volleyball National Coach of the Year at the AVCA Annual Convention. Matthies was voted the inaugural winner of the award back in May during the sand volleyball national championship event held in Gulf Shores, Ala.
Matthies, who was an instrumental part of the campaign to bring sand volleyball to the collegiate level, was featured during the Coaches Honors Luncheon in front of a group of peers.
During the 2012 inaugural season of collegiate sand volleyball, Matthies guided the Waves to a perfect 14-0 record to capture the AVCA Collegiate Sand Volleyball National Championship. The following year, Pepperdine won 20 consecutive duals before a short-handed squad narrowly fell 3-2 to Long Beach State in the national title match.
I suspect the Texas Assistant coach getting her own head coaching job somewhere soon
I hope this doesn’t happen anytime soon, but I’m interested in seeing what coaches apply for the job when Dave retires. Even if the pay isn’t all that high, it’s a big time job.
With 40 schools participating in Sand Volleyball by 2015, how long is the wait till the NCAA sponsors the postseason tournament?
my guess is it could happen as soon as 2015
After UW third win over a strong USC team, i felt Krista would win. Glad the blowout in the first round
by Penn State didn’t change the outcome for this deserving player.
1. I also think it won’t be long . After all she’s been with two of the top programs in the country.
2, Actually Shoji is paid pretty well as far as volleyball coaches go. I think he’s at about 200K a year. I think he has the highest salary of any coach not in a BCS conference. I think a lot of qualified coaches will apply, the question or hurdle is, do they want to move all the way to Hawaii?
7. I think they would. I have a feeling there will be some surprise names in there. Promoting within the program would be great but I think UH should definitely consider others as well
Photo of Emily with Chloe Mann in the GatorZone volleyball twitter.
I thought it would come down to Robinson of Nebraska or Vansant of Washington. Too bad it could not have been a co-NPOY award. Saw both many times on TV or on-line and was very impressed. Both had great season stats, particularly Robinson.
http://avatexas.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=649%3Aava-alumni-annie-mitchem-named-2013-two-year-college-avca-national-player-of-the-year-wow&catid=41%3Aannouncements&Itemid=103
Looks like Annie Mitchem was named the junior college player of the year. that would give UH two back to back winners on the team.
Is Annie coming for sure? And if so when? And does anyone wonder what the starting lineup will be? My guesses are
S-Higgins
L-kahakai or Mendoza
MB-vorster and Adolpho
OH1- Taylor
OH2-passi
OPP- Greeley
Cindy says in 2015, if she gets her AA, but I hope she comes next season somehow. She’s a beast.
Hopefully she comes, don’t know much about he he but I heard she is a BEAST. And it would be one of uh highest ranked recruits in a while. 16 is a very high number for uh reveuits
14. Well after Kanani, UH had Croson at 7, and last year Higgins at 19 and Taylor at 26. All top 10 to 15 are reserved for Penn St, USC, Stanford, Washington, Nebraska, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Florida, Texas and too many other BCS schools. (hopefully) Getting Mitchem would be a blessing for UH. Adolpho is a senior next season, so Mitchem for 2015 is okay, as UH has Adolpho, Vorster, Maglio and Huff in the mix.
15. Higgins was that high? Wow. But I agree, all the top recruits are going those schools, and uh is lucky to get the top recruits. But mitchem will be a force when she comes to UH. she can replace Adolpho and I heard she has a mean block and a killer swing
14. Was told by 2 sources VERY close to the situation that she would be 2015
I wonder how Shoji feels at these events anymore? Is he an outsider looking in, contemporarily?
I drove by the Seattle Sheraton today, it’s the host hotel for all the events going on with the FF.
Mitchem now becomes a national prospect. Her award put her up in the front row for every coach to dream big. Do people genuinely believe that this girl will end up in Manoa?
Cindy’s stirring the pot.
K-Drama
I suppose that Shoji is feeling older and has seen a number of contemporaries retire recently.
as for stirring the pot, doing no such thing. Others have said that Mitchem was being recruited by UH. I have merely confirmed it. And, yes, I believe she will end up in Manoa if the discussions I’ve had with some people are any indication. I don’t know if she has ‘suddenly’ been put on the national stage. She’s had a pretty good resume before now.
Cindy when is the signing period for 2015 recruits from JC, Nov 2014 as HS signees?
18. Same could be said of Keani Passi, a national prospect.
Lots of people have been commenting on Keani Passi’s height or lack of it. Actually, this season has seen the emergence of the height-challenged outside hitter in teams that made the postseason or went deep into it. Wisconsin has Morales, Washington has Strickland, Missouri has Kan, and San Diego has Hollins and Lozic. They all average about 5’9″. The point? Passi has the potential to be a real difference-maker next season. We’ll probably clearer picture in the Spring matches.
Mitchem was already a top recruit out of high school. A lot of schools including Nebraska were recruiting her. When she wasn’t eligible a lot of schools backed off. Hawaii was one of the few schools that probably kept in contact with her. Hopefully she can hit the books and get eligible.
20. early NLI for 2015 is next November
22. Agree that academics were a problem, which is why she is at a JC.
She needs to get her AA in order to sign for 2015.
Hawaii has stayed in contact. Helps that Pestolesi is her coach.
21. Passi IMO is comparable to Strickland, in which she has a jump serve with heat. In the scrimmage in August I thought she had the most heat also in her kills, yes more than Emily and Ashley. Which brings me to this thought, that next season we should improve in putting more pressure on from the service line, with Keani, Savannah and Tayler having jump serves with heat.
Re: Lead Story Nice to hear the name of Nina Matthies. I mentioned her on this blog during the last weekend of the regular season. Only time I ever saw her in live action was at the UH subregionals a couple of years ago, and was very impressed by her.
[I always think D-1 head coaches who have been at the helm for 15+ years and are retiring — even if continuing on in sand volleyball — should be recognized in the same breath as the National COY and Assistant COY when these votes which involve some degree of popularity are announced during the NCAA Championship.]
It’s just not heat that those jump servers need, they need lots of topspin and to aim for the corners like Micha Hancock but with consistency. Hancock’s serve is one of the main reasons PSU won it all. I hope Shoji and Wong realize how important a tough serve is in helping you win.
25. not sure what you’re getting at. Matthies was recognized at the AVCA luncheon
Have known her since we were both at UCLA. A great indoor player as well.
They also put down coaching milestones in the banquet program… 100 wins, 200 wins, etc. although in 2009 Tampa, Shoji COY and they forgot to mention his 1,000 wins in the program.
12. Passi is an opposite, like Chanteal Satele and Kaela Goodman.
About Annie Mitchem, Cindy says she’s for 2015 and I can see why, she’s listed as a freshman for this season.
29, she is a RS freshman, she is on her second year at IVC.
yes, she redshirted fall freshman year. played sand last spring tho.