There are simply so many fabulous NCAA Division I women’s volleyball players.
But for all of the 2018 season, capped by winning her school’s second national title in three years, Stanford outside hitter Kathryn Plummer stood above the rest — figuratively and literally.
Kathryn Plummer led Stanford to its second NCAA title in three years/Ed Chan, VBshots.com
The 6-foot-6 junior is this year’s VolleyballMag.com national player of the year, highlighting our annual All-American list that has a different twist this season.
Somewhere along the way, someone decided that every sport would have three All-American teams plus honorable mention. That has always been the case in volleyball.
But we decided there are simply too many outstanding college volleyball players to stop at three teams, so we’ve added a fourth.
And, frankly, we thought about a fifth because the sport is so deep with talent. For that matter, our all-freshman first team alone would certainly rank right up there with the best squads in the country.
The first All-American team is a Who’s Who of the college game. the 14-player list includes all four of our POY finalists — Plummer, Nebraska’s Mikaela Foecke, BYU’s Roni Jones-Perry and Jordyn Poulter of Illinois — who, not coincidentally, competed in this year’s final four.
And so did Nebraska’s John Cook, our national coach of the year.
Cook took the Huskers to their fourth national semifinals in a row. He led a new-look team — with two freshman starters and a transfer — that made an unlikely run to the championship match. What’s more, he did it again with a relatively new staff, since his assistants keep moving on to head-coaching jobs. One of them, Chris Tamas of Illinois, was right up there in the voting for COY.
Please consider, too, that the VolleyballMag.com voting takes place after the national championship, whereas the AVCA All-American teams, POY and COY are decided beforehand. What’s more, our voting panel consists not only of coaches, but also media members and a few close followers of the sport.
We are excited to honor these great representatives of college volleyball. Our all-freshman teams will be announced Thursday.
Nebraska’s John Cook is the VolleyballMag.com national coach of the year/Ed Chan. VBshots.com
Player of the year: Kathryn Plummer, Stanford Coach of the year: John Cook, Nebraska
First team
Kathryn Plummer, Jr., OH, Stanford Mikaela Foecke, Sr., OH, Nebraska
Roni Jones-Perry, Sr., OH, BYU Jordyn Poulter, Sr., S, Illinois
Lyndie Haddock-Eppich, Sr., S, BYU
Morgan Hentz, Jr., L, Stanford
Mary Lake, Jr., L, BYU
Jacqueline Quade, Jr., OH, Illinois
Dana Rettke, So., MB, Wisconsin
Stephanie Samedy, So., RS, Minnesota
Samantha Seliger-Swenson, Sr., S, Minnesota
Lauren Stivrins, So., MB, Nebraska
Ronika Stone, Jr., MB, Oregon
Kendall White, Jr., L, Penn State
OF course, Cook was the CoY. . . this is why you don’t award trophies before the season is over. . .this is why they don’t stop the Olympic 1500 and award the gold medal after 1200 meters. . . Anyone who was in Lincoln on August 24 and saw Florida beat Nebraska in 4 would have called you a liar if you told them that Nebraska team ended the year playing Stanford for the NC and could have won the match. Cook said before Nebraska played its first round NCAA game that Nebraska ‘was the most improved team in America’. . they were; for the second year in a row. Reyes and Banwarth can’t escape the credit, but this season was simply remarkable. Thank you.
Roni Jones-Perry is my POY, for sure. Same sort of numbers as Plummer (who is indeed great, too), but especially once McKenna Miller went out, everyone in the gym knew that Roni was their go-to outside hitter, and teams could concentrate their block on her. Still her numbers were amazing. (Look at her game against Texas. Almost miraculous, in my opinion.) Oh well…….happy holidays, vb fans.
This is a truly idiotic comment. Jones-Perry was better than Plummer last year (they didn’t have the “same sort of numbers”–RJP’s were better), though in retrospect, Jordan Thompson was actually the best player in the country.
Roni Jones-Perry is a fantastic player. But she played most of the season against mid-level DI blockers and floor defenders. Her negative hitting performance in the semi-final came at an unfortunate time. Wish her all the best.
Final thought re: POY:
Jones-Perry had an excellent team around her, bodes well for BYU next year…but Plummer had–literally–5 other All-Americans on the floor with her…options galore for Jenna Gray to set on any given play…teams knew they would pay for it if they concentrated too much on Plummer.
I really don’t know what the voters were thinking of on this one. I thought it was a no-brainer.
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OF course, Cook was the CoY. . . this is why you don’t award trophies before the season is over. . .this is why they don’t stop the Olympic 1500 and award the gold medal after 1200 meters. . . Anyone who was in Lincoln on August 24 and saw Florida beat Nebraska in 4 would have called you a liar if you told them that Nebraska team ended the year playing Stanford for the NC and could have won the match. Cook said before Nebraska played its first round NCAA game that Nebraska ‘was the most improved team in America’. . they were; for the second year in a row. Reyes and Banwarth can’t escape the credit, but this season was simply remarkable. Thank you.
Roni Jones-Perry is my POY, for sure. Same sort of numbers as Plummer (who is indeed great, too), but especially once McKenna Miller went out, everyone in the gym knew that Roni was their go-to outside hitter, and teams could concentrate their block on her. Still her numbers were amazing. (Look at her game against Texas. Almost miraculous, in my opinion.) Oh well…….happy holidays, vb fans.
‘same sort of numbers’.. against vastly inferior competition. RJP was even in the top 3 IMO.
This is a truly idiotic comment. Jones-Perry was better than Plummer last year (they didn’t have the “same sort of numbers”–RJP’s were better), though in retrospect, Jordan Thompson was actually the best player in the country.
Roni Jones-Perry is a fantastic player. But she played most of the season against mid-level DI blockers and floor defenders. Her negative hitting performance in the semi-final came at an unfortunate time. Wish her all the best.
Final thought re: POY:
Jones-Perry had an excellent team around her, bodes well for BYU next year…but Plummer had–literally–5 other All-Americans on the floor with her…options galore for Jenna Gray to set on any given play…teams knew they would pay for it if they concentrated too much on Plummer.
I really don’t know what the voters were thinking of on this one. I thought it was a no-brainer.
IMHO, you guys did yourselves a dis service in posting a 4th Team. haha
1, 2, 3. HM and National merit.