As the NCAA men’s and beach seasons head into the home stretch, we’ve got not only players of the week, but players of the year.
And that starts with the powerful Big West, which boasts the top three teams in the most recent AVCA Division I-II Men’s Poll. The league named Long Beach State’s Kyle Ensing its player of the year.
The AVCA announced its national honors for the week. The men’s player is Long Beach State senior outside hitter TJ DeFalco, while the top beach pair is Hawai’i senior Emily Maglio and junior Amy Ozee.
Big West men: Ensing, a senior opposite, ranks fifth in the league in hitting percentage (.356), fourth in kills per set (3.53) and third in aces (.52). DeFalco won the honor last year and Long Beach won the NCAA title.
Alan Knipe of Long Beach was named the league’s coach of the year. The freshman of the year is UC Santa Barbara outside Ryan Wilcox.
Click here for the complete Big West all-conference team.
MPSF: Pepperdine senior outside David Wieczorek repeated as player of the year. Wieczorek is second in the league in hitting percentage (.372) and second in the league in kills per set (3.84). He averaged .43 aces.
BYU outside Davide Gardini is the freshman of the year.
Click here for the complete MPSF all-conference team.
EIVA: Princeton junior opposite George Huhmann is the player of the year. He ranks in the top five in seven statistical categories, including being third in kills (337), kills per set (3.37) and hitting percentage (.348).
His coach, Sam Schweisky, was named coach of the year.
Penn State junior outside Henrik Falck Lauten is the newcomer of the year.
Click here for the complete EIVA all-conference team.
No POYs to report from the MIVA or Conference Carolinas.
Pac-12 beach: USC senior Terese Cannon and sophomore Sammy Slater are the league’s top pair. It’s the third time Cannon has won the award and the first for Slater.
ASUN beach: The top pair is Stetson juniors Sunniva Helland-Hansen and Carly Perales, who won for the fourth time overall and third time this season.
CCSA: The Coastal College Sports Association makes its announcement on Wednesdays and last week honored FIU junior Federica Frasca and senior Margherita Bianchin, who are both from Italy.
Nothing to report from the Big West or West Coast Conference.
