Written For the LSWA
BATON ROUGE — Louisiana’s two NCAA Tournament teams, Tulane and LSU, dominated the special awards presented Sunday with the announcement of the 2008 Louisiana Sports Writers Association All-Louisiana College Volleyball Team.
The team was selected by the state volleyball sports information staffs based on nominations supplied by the various schools. Besides the special awards, a six-person team and libero was chosen for each team.
The Player of the Year in the state was Conference USA and AVCA All-Midwest Region Player of the Year Sara Radosevic of Tulane with teammate Visnja Djurdjevic named Freshman of the Year to go with her C-USA and AVCA All-Midwest Region Freshman of the Year honors.
Tulane Coach Liz Kritza was named the Louisiana Coach of the Year after winning C-USA Co-Coach of the Year and AVCA All-Midwest Region Coach of the Year accolades as Tulane won its first C-USA Championship and earned a No. 16 national seed at the NCAA Tournament.
LSU’s Elena Martinez was named the Louisiana and Southeastern Conference Player of the Year and LSU transfer setter Sam Dabbs stepped into the Tigers lineup and was named the state’s Newcomer of the Year as the Tigers won its fourth consecutive SEC West Division crown and made its fourth consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance.
Joining Radosevic, Djurdjevic and libero Martinez on the first team were Britnee Cooper of LSU, Northwestern State’s Yelena Enwere, UNO’s Dobrilla Kovacevic and Tulane’s Bridget Wells.
Radosevic headlined the Green Wave in points (528.0), kills (456), kills per set (3.62) and service aces (42). She powered home double-digit kills 28 times, including a season-best 25 against Western Michigan (Dec. 6) in the NCAA Tournament Second Round. The Croatian also tallied 13 double-doubles highlighted by a 21-kill, 18-dig performance at Rice (Oct. 24).
Djurdjevic ranked third for Tulane in points (356.5), kills (305), kills per set (2.42), digs (300) and digs per set (2.38). She put together 11 double-doubles which included a 15-kill, 16-dig effort at Rice (Oct. 24).
Martinez anchored the LSU back row reeling in 516 digs, including 20 or more digs in 11 of her last 13 matches. Her 516 digs match Luciana Reis (1993) for the third-most in a single season. The New Orleans product paced the SEC with 516 digs at a 4.96 per set ratio. She also carried the bulk of Tigers service receptions, and committed only 18 reception errors in 840 attempts for an impressive .979 percentage.
Dabbs directed a balanced offense that featured six players with more than 100 kills for the season, including herself. She finished fourth in the SEC with 9.22 assists per set and also was third in digs (191).
Also on the first team, middle blocker Cooper earned All-SEC first team honors, leading the team with a .336 hitting percentage and 126 blocks. Enwere earned second team Southland honors becoming just the second Demon in the history of the program to earn post-season honors. Kovacevic earned first team Sun Belt honors for UNO averaging 4.12 kills per set with 28 double-digit kill matches, with Wells earning first team Conference USA honors with 383 kills, second on the Green Wave.
First Team
Name, School/Pos/Class/Hometown/Notes
Britnee Cooper, LSU/MB/Jr.//ALL-SEC First Team
Visnja Djurdjevic, Tulane/OH/Fr./Zitiste, Serbia/C-USA Freshman of Year
Yelena Enwere, Northwestern State/OH/Jr./Stafford, Texas/Second Team All-SLC
Dobrilla Kovacevic, UNO/OH/Sr./Belgrade, Serbia/First Team All-Sun Belt
Sara Radosevic, Tulane/OH/Sr./Zagreb, Croatia/C-USA Player of Year
Bridget Wells ? Tulane/RS/Sr., Raleigh, N.C./First Team All-C-USA
Elena Martinez ? LSU/L/Sr.//SEC Defensive Player of Year
Player of The Year ? Sara Radosevic, Tulane
Defensive Player of The Year ? Elena Martinez, LSU
Freshman of the Year: Visnja Djurdjevic, Tulane
Newcomer of the Year: Sam Dabbs, LSU
Coach of the Year: Liz Kritza, Tulane
Second Team All-Louisiana
Name, School/Pos/Class/Hometown/Notes
Sam Dabbs, LSU/S/Jr.//Top 5 in 5 LSU stat categories
Jen Linder, Tulane/MB/Sr./Austin, Texas/Second Team All-C-USA
Lindsey Loyd, UNO/OH/Jr./Houston, Texas/First Team All-Sun Belt
Ena Payne, Southern/MB/Sr./Breaux Bridge, La/All-SWAC
Kyna Washington, LSU/OH/Sr.//Led LSU in Hit Pct. (313)
Amy Whitehead, Nicholls State/S/Jr./San Antonio, Texas/All-Time school assist leader
Lindsey Brown, Louisiana-Lafayette/L/So./Yorba Linda, Calif./Missed only one set in two years