BATON ROUGE — For the second straight year, McNeese State’s Anissa Parker has been selected as the Louisiana Sports Writer’s Association Player of the Year in Volleyball, while the University of New Orleans’ Julie Ibieta was named the LSWA Coach of the Year.
Parker, a senior from Bakersfield, Calif., capped her record-setting career at McNeese by leading the Cowgirls in every offensive category as well as ranking 10th in the nation in kills with just over five per contest. Parker also became McNeese’s career leader in kills, attempts and digs during the 2000 season. She holds the school’s single-match kills mark with 37 against Texas-Arlington and she recorded 20 or more kills 16 times during the year.
Ibieta, a former first team All-Louisiana selection in volleyball during her playing days at LSU, guided UNO to a 21-14 overall and the school’s first-ever appearance in the championship match of the Sun Belt Conference Tournament.
Other individual honors had Kim Chance of Louisiana-Lafayette winning Newcomer of the Year honors and Beth Hanson, also of Louisiana-Lafayette being named the Freshman of the Year. In 17 starts for the Lady Cajuns, Chance had a total of 103 blocks and 174 kills. Henson started 19 matches for the Lady Cajuns and she had 926 assists and she became the first Louisiana-Lafayette player to record at least 60 assists five times in a single-season.
Joining Parker on the All-Louisiana first team were Jessica Perdue of New Orleans, Kim Sentmore of Tulane, Meagan Davis of LSU, Julie Mann of Louisiana Tech and Erin Dobyanski of Tulane.
Perdue led the Privateers with 488 kills and she finished her career ranked third in school history in the category. She was also a first team All-Sun Belt Conference selection. Davis helped LSU reach the title match of the SEC Tournament and she was also a second team All-SEC pick after hitting for an .348 average.
Sentmore earned All-Conference USA honors after posting 515 kills and 436 digs for the year, while Mann ranked second in the Sun Belt Conference with 3.75 digs a contest as well as 3.03 kills a match. Dobyanski was also an All-Conference USA pick after recording 392 kills, 24 service aces and 287 digs and a team-best 102 blocks.
The second unit featured Lauren Cuyler, Meghan Bedford and Jennifer Hampton of LSU, Alison Howard of New Orleans, Lauren Jones-McClain of Tulane and Lia Mora of Louisiana Tech.
2000 All-Louisiana Vollleyball Team
First Team
Anissa Parker, senior, McNeese State
Jessica Perdue, senior, New Orleans
Julie Mann, junior, Louisiana Tech
Erin Dobyanski, junior, Tulane
Kim Sentmore, senior, Tulane
Meagan Davis, junior, LSU
Second Team
Meghan Bedford, junior, LSU
Lauren Cuyler, sophomore, LSU
Jennifer Hampton, sophomore, LSU
Alison Howard, sophomore, New Orleans
Lauren Jones-McClain, freshman, Tulane
Lia Mora, freshman, Louisiana Tech
Player of the Year: Anissa Parker (McNeese State)
Freshman of the Year: Beth Henson (Louisiana-Lafayette)
Newcomer of the Year: Kim Chance (Louisiana-Lafayette)
Coach of the Year: Julie Ibieta (New Orleans)