Spartanburg, SC -- Southern Conference regular season champion College of Charleston placed a league-high four players on the all-conference team, announced by the conference office today. The Cougars, who finished their league slate with a perfect 18-0 mark, had three players garner first-team accolades, placed one performer on the second team, and had the league’s coach and player of the year. Voting was conducted by the league’s 11 coaches.
College of Charleston senior setter Kaycie Carr garnered league Player of the Year plaudits and led the league in assists averaging 12.85 per game. Carr earned second-team All-SoCon honors in 2003 and is the first College of Charleston player to capture the SoCon’s top volleyball individual honor. In league-only matches, the Sylvania, OH native increased her assists-per-game average to 13.08 and also directed the Cougar offense to a .287 hitting percentage in SoCon contests.
While Carr was named the league’s Player of the Year, Cougar head coach Sherry Dunbar took home Coach of the Year honors for the second time in her career. Dunbar last earned the award in 2003 as she led the Cougars to a 17-1 mark in conference play and an appearance in the Southern Conference Championship match.
Chattanooga’s Lara Newberry was awarded the league’s Libero of the Year as well as the Rayna Taylor Award, given to the top freshman in the SoCon. Newberry, who led the conference in digs with 693, also averaged a league-best 6.08 kills per game. Newberry is only the second player in school history to earn Freshman of the Year honors. The Chattanooga, TN, native, who also averaged 6.20 dpg in conference matches, is only the second player to garner the award as the conference’s top back row player.
College of Charleston’s Rebecca Wieters and Tiffany Blum round out the Cougars’ first-team selections. Wieters, a senior right side hitter from Goose Creek, SC, led the Cougars with 338 kills and averaged 3.67 kills per game.Wieters, who was also named to the first team last season, paced the conference in service aces, averaging 0.54 per game.
Blum, a middle blocker from Dubuque, IA, led the SoCon in blocks (1.44 bpg) and ranked second in the league in hitting percentage (.341) during the regular season. The sophomore’s blocks averaged jumped to 1.56 in SoCon matches, while her attack percentage increased to .377.
Appalachian State’s Stefanie Panzer was the lone Mountaineer selected to the first team. Panzer, the 2004 Southern Conference Player of the Year, led the conference in hitting percentage with a .385 composite, and ranked second in the league in blocks, averaging 1.36 per game. Panzer also ranked in the top-10 in the league in kills per game (3.49).
Furman’s Whitney Purser and Georgia Southern’s Iulia Porumbescu round out the first-team selections. Purser, a junior from Howey-in-the-Hills, FL, was second in the league in kills with 408 and averaged 4.00 per game.
Porumbescu, a senior from Bucharest, Romania, led the league in kills with 534 and was among the national leaders averaging 5.19 kills per game. This season Porumbescu also had seven matches where she registered 25 or more kills. She also earned first-team honors a season ago.
Named to the all-Southern Conference second team are Appalachian State’s Kali Rumberger andDianna Thomas, Chattanooga’s Lara Newberry and Lindsey Galloway, College of Charleston’s Amanda Timmers and Davidson’s Liz Williamson.
First Team
Name School Pos. Yr. Hometown (High School)
$Stefanie Panzer Appalachian State MB Jr. Mt. Gilead, NC (West Montgomery)
#Kaycie Carr College of Charleston S Sr. Sylvania, OH (St. Ursula)
!Tiffany Blum College of Charleston MB So. Dubuque, IA (Wahlert)
$Rebecca Wieters College of Charleston RS Sr. Goose Creek, SC (Stratford)
Whitney Purser Furman OH Jr. Howey-in-Hills, FL (Highland)
$Iulia Porumbescu Georgia Southern OH Sr. Bucharest, Romania (Lee College)
Second Team
Name School Pos. Yr. Hometown (High School)
Kali Rumberger Appalachian State L Sr. Spokane, WA (Mead)
Diana Thomas Appalachian State MB So. Mobile, AL (McGill-Toolen)
!Amanda Timmers College of Charleston OH Sr. Appleton, WI (Xavier)
Lara Newberry Chattanooga L Fr. Chattanooga, TN (Baylor School)
Lindsey Galloway Chattnaooga RS Sr. Greenwood, IN (Center Grove)
Liz Williamson Davidson OH Jr. Austin, TX (St. Stephens)
Player of the Year: Kaycie Carr, College of Charleston
Rayna Taylor Freshman of the Year: Lara Newberry, Chattanooga
Libero of the Year: Lara Newberry, Chattanooga
Coach of the Year: Sherry Dunbar, College of Charleston
$First-team all-SoCon selection in 2004
!Second-team all-SoCon in 2004
&First-team all-SoCon selection in 2003
#Second-team all-SoCon selection in 2003