Postseason Accolades

I mentioned in the comments of the last volleyball post that the UT Arlington Mavericks squad should be well represented. The awards and all-conference teams were announced by the Western Athletic Conference today and as a whole, it came to fruition.

I'll start with Player of the Year. While some teams had an impact player or two, it is hard to suppress what graduate student Brianna Ford did at her outside hitter position. She led the WAC in kills, kills per set, points and was fourth in hitting percentage, sixth in blocks, seventh in aces, ninth in blocks per set and tenth in digs. Were she playing on another team, some of those numbers would likely be higher as UTA spread the wealth around. UTA would have been good without her, but her presence on both the offensive and defensive side is what propelled the Mavs to their highest win total in three and a half decades.

Ford is the ninth Player of the Year in program history and the first since Olaya Pazo in 2002. 

Graduate senior Mollie Blank earned Setter of the Year. She led the WAC in assists, 27 more than second place, but did it in five less sets. She led by almost one and a half assists per set over second place too. Do you want to know why Ford and those to be named later in this post did well? Look no further than Blank's efficient passing, with the occasional dart for a kill.

This is the first Setter of the Year award for UTA, as there have been no award for this category in most of the seasons prior to 2024.

The last player accolade goes to freshman outside hitter Sjakkie Donkers. She earned a co-award with Sami Blackett of Utah Valley. Donkers was ninth in kills per set and points. Blackett was third in KPS, had the second most kills in the WAC and was fourth in points. However, Donkers played on a team that distributed the ball more evenly. When Donkers form is near perfect, she is very lethal. That is likely what put her next to Blackett.

Donkers is the sixth Maverick to earn Freshman of the Year honors. The last occurred in 2001 with Caley Smith.

As expected from a team that went 16-0, five games better than second place, J.T. Wenger earned Coach of the Year honors. The eighth-year coach won it for the first time since taking the Head Coach position in 2017.

It is the 12th time a UTA coach received the award from their respective conference, but first since Janine Smith in 2002.

The only individual award the Mavs did not get was the Libero of the Year, won by California Baptist's Amanda Darling. She led the conference in digs per set and was eighth in total digs.

Blank and Ford earned a spot on the First-Team All-WAC team. Graduate student middle blocker Paige Reagor joined her two teammates. Reagor was second in the conference for blocks and blocks per set. Further contributing to her place on the first team, she led the conference in hitting percentage.

In addition to the three Mavericks, CBU's Darling, UVU's Blackett and Avery Shewell, Grand Canyon's Tatum Parrott and Utah Tech's Kennedi Knudsen were on the first team.

Donkers was placed on the second team as well as the all-freshman team, the only Maverick to do so. Graduate student outside hitter Cansu Gunaydin earned the equivalent of honorable mention.

As I mentioned in the last blog entry, these accolades are nice but this team has one goal in mind. That goal takes the next phase tomorrow when the conference tournament starts at College Park Center. UTA opens up against Abilene Christian tomorrow at 7 pm.