AVCA Announces Volleyball All-American Teams
Dec. 13, 2007
IRVING, Texas - Conference USA had nine student-athletes named to the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Division I All-America honorable mention team. The nine honorees match the most ever by the league in a single season. All nine honoree were selected to the AVCA All-Region First Team on Dec. 6. Headlining the list is Marshall's four-time honoree Kelly-Anne Billingy. Billingy, a senior outside hitter, becomes the first Marshall player to accomplish this feat. She tallied 567 kills in 2007 and amassed a school-record 2,481 during her career at Marshall. The three-time C-USA Player of the Year concluded her career ranked seventh in the league with 1,787 kills, as a member of the league. Billingy ranked 12th in the nation in kills per game (5.15) in 2007. Joining Billingy on the honorable mention list is teammate and freshman Elizabeth Fleming, whose 13.35 assists per game ranked 13th in the nation, and second among all freshman setters. Fleming finished her inaugural season with the Herd with a C-USA-best 1,642 helpers. Tulane's Sara Radosevic, Bridget Wells and Jenn Miller were all named AVCA All-America honorable mention as well. Radosevic picks up the award for the third-straight season, while Wells and Miller are first time honorees. Radosevic, a first team All-C-USA selection, moved up to second on the Wave's all-time kills list with 1,469 this season. The junior from Zagreb, Croatia, also became Tulane's single-season aces leader (70) and led the team with a career-high tying 34 kills in the win at LSU. Wells, a first team All-C-USA selection, turned in a solid junior season, improving her hitting percentage by almost .200 points to finish in the top 10 in Conference USA at .323. Miller, the 2007 C-USA Libero of the Year and second team all-conference pick, once again set a new single-season record for digs. For the last two seasons, the sophomore has established single season school records in digs as she became the first Tulane player with 500-plus digs (507/2006), only to better that by becoming the first to hit 600-plus digs (609). Miller sits fifth all-time at Tulane in digs with 1,116 and finished the 2007 season second in the league with 5.30 per game.
Earning their first AVCA All-American honors is Natalie Bogan of Rice and Houston's Justine Farmer. Bogan led the Owls in kills (336), blocks (112) and hitting percentage (.320). Her blocks per game (1.08) ranked seventh best in the league, while her hitting efficiency was ninth best. Farmer concluded the regular season with a nation best 5.58 kills per game. The junior outside hitter finished the year with a league-best 5.51 KPG and her 1,666 career kills ranks first in the UH record books and eighth best in C-USA. The two-time All-C-USA first team selection also ranks fourth best in Cougar history with 1,264 career digs, which ranks 20th best all-time in the conference. Shelby Burton became the first Memphis volleyball player selected as an AVCA honorable mention All-America performer in back-to-back seasons. The middle blocker is eighth on the league's all-time blocks list with 484. Burton is also tied for sixth on Memphis' all-time kills ledger with 1,389. The senior also became the first player in Memphis history to lead the program in hitting efficiency all four seasons. She capped off her career with a .369 attack percentage. Tulsa senior Julia Silva rounds out the list of C-USA AVCA All-Americans. Silva is a three time AVCA All-America honorable mention, All-Region and a two-time C-USA Setter of the Year honoree. She guided the Golden Hurricane to its first NCAA Championship appearance and C-USA Tournament title in 2007. Silva was voted C-USA Setter of the Week a record six times and led the league with 10 triple-doubles and 31 double-doubles. She owns the top two totals for assists in a single-season at TU and became the first setter in program history to surpass the 4,000 career assist mark (4,206). 2007 C-USA's AVCA Division I Honorable Mention All-America Selections |
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