BATON ROUGE — McNeese junior Anissa Parker has been named Louisiana’s Volleyball Player of the Year and Cowgirl head coach Lee McBride has been selected as the state’s Coach of the Year, the Louisiana Sports Writer’s Association announced on Saturday.
Jennifer Hampton of LSU was selected as the Freshman of the Year for the state, while Northwestern State’s Elizabeth Perez earned Newcomer of the Year honors.
McBride guided McNeese to a 23-10 overall mark and to the school’s first-ever appearance in the championship match of the Southland Conference Volleyball Tournament. The 20-win season was the fourth straight for the Cowgirls, who finished in fourth place in the SLC during the regular-season.
Parker, a junior outside hitter from Bakersfield, Calif., was named first team All-SLC after leading the Cowgirls with 590 kills, 480 digs and 48 service aces. Parker also hit a team-high .231 and she recorded 20 or more kills in 15 contests, which included a career-best of 29 against Texas-Arlington. Parker was also a member of the SLC All-Tournament team and she was SLC Player of the Week one time.
Hampton, a freshman from Houston, started every match for the Tigers and she helped LSU to its first winning record since 1995 with a 17-15 overall mark. Hampton recorded 322 kills, including a season-best 24 against Stanford, while hitting .148. Hampton paced the Tigers with 295, which ranked 10th in the Southeastern Conference.
Perez, a junior from Miami, Fla., led the Demons in both kills (255) and digs (268) and she ranked second on the squad with 20 assists and 20 service aces.
Joining Parker on the first team All-Louisiana squad are LSU’s Kelly Thompson and Meagan Davis, Tulane’s Kim Sentmore, New Orleans’ Jessica Perdue, and Loyola’s Jenny Leier.
Thompson and Davis were both first team All-SEC picks for the Tigers, while Sentmore was a second team All-Conference USA selection. Perdue, a first team All-Sun Belt Conference pick, led the league in kills with 542 and kills per game at 4.67. Leier is one of the most-decorated athletes in Loyola history as was named the NAIA Southeast Region Player of the Year as well as Gulf Coast Conference Player of the Year. Leier set a school-record with 180 blocks and she also recorded 511 kills and 64 service aces, while
hitting a team-best .233.
The second team is made up of Centenary’s Cassiana Costa, McNeese’s Lisa Lombardo, Northwestern State’s Perez, Southeastern Louisiana’s Mandy Withrow and Tulane’s Lacey Vicknair and Jennifer Witte.
Costa led Centenary to a school-record 21 victories and she led the nation with 87 service aces, which also ranks as a school-record. Lombardo was an honorable mention All-SLC pick for McNeese after posting a team-best 1,410 assists for the Cowgirls. Withrow was a member third team All-SLC pick after leading the Lady Lions with 388 kills for a 4.0 per game average.
Vicknair, who started four years for the Tulane women’s basketball team, ranked fifth in CUSA with 1.14 blocks a game in just her first season of volleyball. Witte registered a team-best 1,352 assists and she ranked third in CUSA with 12.9 assists a game.
LSWA All-Louisiana Volleyball Team
First Team
Meagan Davis, LSU 6-1 So. Middle Blocker Kingswood, Texas
Jenny Leier, Loyola 5-11 Sr. Middle Blocker LaPlace, La.
Anissa Parker, McNeese State 5-9 Jr. Outside Hitter Bakersfield, Calif.
Jessie Perdue, New Orleans 6-1 Jr. Outside Hitter Metairie, La.
Kim Sentmore, Tulane Jr. Outside Hitter New Orleans, La.
Kelly Thompson, LSU 6-1 Sr. Middle Blocker Ventura, Calif.
Second Team
Cassiana Costa, Centenary 5-8 So. Setter/OH Sao Paulo, Brazil
Lisa Lombardo, McNeese 5-7 Sr. Setter Ft. Wayne, Ind.
Elizabeth Perez, Northwestern State 5-9 Jr. Outside Hitter Miami, Fla.
Lacey Vicknair, Tulane Sr. Middle Blocker Metairie, La.
Mandy Withrow, Southeastern Louisiana 5-11 So. Outside Hitter Fresno, Calif.
Jennifer Witte,Tulane So. Setter Arlington, Texas