BATON ROUGE — Marina Skender was named the Southeastern Conference Freshman of the Year as the LSU volleyball team placed four players on the All-SEC teams, as announced by the league office at the SEC Tournament banquet on Thursday night.
Senior Ivana Kuzmic was named to the All-SEC first team for LSU, while Skender and senior Jelena Mijatovic were both named to the All-SEC second team. In addition, Skender and Kyna Washington were both named to the SEC All-Freshman team.
LSU’s four players named to the All-SEC teams tied Florida for the second most of any school in the league, behind Tennessee which had the most with five. It marks the most LSU student-athletes on the All-SEC first and second teams since the Tigers had one on the first team and two on the second team in 2001 and was the most overall conference awards since LSU had four on the All-SEC teams in 1992.
Skender became the third Tiger to earn the Freshman of the Year award and the first since Luciana Reis in 1990. She is also the first LSU freshman to make the All-SEC first or second team since Daniela Reis earned second-team honors in 1989 and only the eighth freshman overall to earn first or second team honors in the SEC since 2000.
For the season, she has posted a .322 hitting percentage, second best on the team and 10th best in the league. She is also averaging 2.79 kills per game, 0.31 service aces per game, 1.52 digs per game and 0.90 blocks per game. She was named the SEC Freshman of the week on four occasions and the SEC Player of the Week once. Against Auburn on Oct. 28, she recorded the second-best single-match hitting percentage in LSU history at .700 for a player with 20 or more attempts.
Kuzmic leads the team with 1.70 blocks per game, the second best in the SEC and fifth most in the NCAA. In addition, she leads the team and ranks seventh in the SEC with a .341 hitting percentage and also averages 2.24 kills per game. Against Kentucky, she became the first player to wear an LSU uniform to record 700 career blocks.
The LSU career record holder for blocks per game, she currently ranks third in single-season block assists and first in blocks per game. Against Campbell, she recorded a school record .923 hitting percentage, the 22nd best mark in NCAA history. She was named the SEC Defensive Player of the Week on three occasions and the SEC Player of the Week once this season.
For the second straight season, Mijatovic leads the team with 4.19 kills per game, which ranks seventh in the league. In addition, she leads the SEC in service aces per game and holds the LSU career service ace per game record. Against Jacksonville, she recorded the sixth most kills in a three-game match in school history. Additionally, she became the 25th player in school history to record 700 career digs.
Washington ranks second on the team with 3.12 kills per game, while averaging 1.88 digs per game and 0.60 blocks per game. She ranks second in the SEC in kills per game among freshmen in the league. On five occasions she led the team in kills in a match, while leading the team in digs twice. She was named the SEC Freshman of the Week once this season.
Coach of the Year: Craig Skinner, Kentucky
Player of the Year: Jane Collymore, Florida
Defensive Player of the Year: Jenni Casper, Kentucky
Freshman of the Year: Marina Skender, LSU
Scholar-Athlete of the Year: Danielle Wallace, Kentucky
FIRST-TEAM ALL-SEC
Jane Collymore, Florida
Kisya Killingsworth, Florida
Angie McGinnis, Florida
Alexandra Oquendo, Georgia
Ivana Kuzmic, LSU
Kristen Andre, Tennessee
Yuliya Stoyanova, Tennessee
SECOND-TEAM ALL-SEC
Bridget Fuentez, Alabama
Amy Allison, Arkansas
Marcie Hampton, Florida
Julia Petruschke, Georgia
Amy Kaplan, Kentucky
Danielle Wallace, Kentucky
Jelena Mijatovic, LSU
Marina Skender, LSU
Shonda Cole, South Carolina
Sarah Blum, Tennessee
Julie Knytych, Tennessee
Amy Morris, Tennessee
ALL-FRESHMAN TEAM
Sarah Snider, Alabama
Christina Lawrence, Arkansas
Maria Taylor, Georgia
Queen Nzenwa, Kentucky
Marina Skender, LSU
Kyna Washington, LSU
Marija Milosevic, South Carolina