BATON ROUGE – Andrea Hole, the senior setter of the Louisiana-Lafayette Ragin’ Cajuns, was named the Louisiana Player of the Year in college volleyball on the All-Louisiana team selected for the Louisiana Sports Writers Association.
Hole led her team to its first 20-win season since 1990 and won a close vote among five players who received votes for the honor.
The coaching duo of Hugh and Stephanie Hernesman of Northwestern State earned Coach of the Year honors after taking the Demons to the NCAA Championship while Nicholls had two special honor winners – Libero of the Year Kalynn Egea and Newcomer of the Year Kaci Eaton. Freshman of the Year, in another close vote, went to Sarah Ray of Tulane.
The team was selected based on nominations from the sport playing schools in the state and then the media relations/sports information personnel voted on the list of nominations, but could not vote for any of their athletes.
Hole, from Oslo, Norway, Averaged 10.12 assists per set, good for fifth in the Sun Belt Conference. She also ranked second in the league with 21 double doubles. She was twice the league’s Player of the Week and her 1,290 assists this season was the third most all-time at the school.
Libero Egea was a Southland Conference Honorable Mention choice and the senior led the Nicholls defense with a conference-leading 607 digs and 5.84 digs per set. She was also fourth in the nation in digs per set and finished her career first in school history in that category.
Eaton, in her first year playing at a Louisiana four-year school, was named second team All-SLC with a team-leading 448 kills and added 290 digs. She finished third in the SLC in kills and helped a Colonel attack that was first in the conference and third in the nation in attacks per set.
Freshman winner Ray, led the Green Wave in kills, points and aces while sitting second in kills, points per set and digs. She tallied season highs of 19 kills in matches against East Carolina and USF and totaled 344 total kills to go with 25 aces.
The Hernesmans won for Northwestern State its first-ever SLC championship as well as an NCAA berth. During the year the program swept No. 15 Missouri (the first win for the program over a ranked team) and ended Central Arkansas’ 38-match conference win streak.
Joining Hole, Egea and Eaton on the first team were Xavier outside hitter and GCAC Player of the Year Chunedu Echebelem; LSU All-SEC selections Briana Holman and Cati Leak; and, Northwestern State’s Mackenzie Neely.
2014 LSWA All-Louisiana College Volleyball Team
FIRST TEAM (LISTED ALPHABETICALLY; LIBERO LISTED AS FINAL MEMBER OF EACH TEAM)
NAME, SCHOOL/POS./CLASS/HOMETOWN/NOTES
Chinedu Echebelem, Xavier/OH/Sr./Dallas, Texas/GCAC POY, 199 K, 8 double doubles
Kaci Eaton, Nicholls/OH/So./Austin, Texas/2nd team All-SLC, 488 kills, 3rd nation attacks per set
Andrea Hole, UL-Lafayette/S/Sr./Oslo, Norway/10.12 assists per set, 21 double doubles
Briana Holman, LSU/MB/So./Desoto, Texas/All-SEC, Led SEC blocks and bps, .392 hitting pct.
Cati Leak, LSU/OH/Jr./Guntersville, Ala./All-SEC, 2nd on team in kills, 3rd in digs, .238 hitting pct.
Mackenzie Neely, Northwestern State/RS/Sr./Dripping Springs, Texas/SLC Tourney MVP, 329 kills
Kalynn Egea, Nicholls/L/Sr./Peoria, Ariz./All-SLC HM, SLC leading 607 digs, 4th national DPS (5.84)
PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Andrea Hole – UL-Lafayette
Voting – Hole 4, Echebelem 3, Holman 2, Neely 2, Eva Allen 1
LIBERO OF THE YEAR
Kalynn Egea – Nicholls
Voting – Egea 7, Marcela Araya 2, Morgan Todd 2, Haley Smith 1
FRESHMAN OF THE YEAR
Sarah Ray – Tulane
Voting – Ray 5, Bayleigh Hoffman 4, Gina Tillis 3
NEWCOMER OF THE YEAR
Kaci Eaton – Nicholls
Voting – only nominee
COACH OF THE YEAR
Hugh and Stephanie Hernesman – Northwestern State
Voting—Hernesmans 6,Hannah Lawing3, Fran Flory 2, Heather Mazeitis-Fontenot 1
SECOND TEAM
Eva Allen, Loyola/OH/Jr./Oakland, Calif./2nd team ALL-SSAC
Rachel Cagnina, McNeese/OH/Sr./Carol Stream, Ill./306 kills, led team .282 hitting pct.
*Stacey Difrancesco, Northwestern State/OH/Sr./The Woodlands, Texas/All-SLC HM
*Glynna Johnson, Northwestern State/MB/Jr./Gatesville, Texas/All-SLC HM
Tea Juric, Tulane/OH, RS/So./Kastel Stari, Croatia/Let team kill per set (3.27) & digs
Malorie Pardo, LSU/S/Sr./League City, Texas/2nd on team .338 hitting pct.
Rebecca Redgen, Louisiana Tech/OH/Sr./Gladstone, Australia/2nd team All-CUSA
Marcela Araya, ULM/L/Sr./San Jose, Costa Rica/8th in NCAA in nation in digs (655)
*Tie for position