CHARLESTON, S.C. ? The American Volleyball Coaches Association has announced that College of Charleston sophomore setter Cole Dawley (Charleston, S.C.) has been named an AVCA All-South Region Honorable Mention following an impressive 2008 campaign.
Dawley becomes only the fourth Cougar to receive such recognition as she joins Kaycie Carr (2002-05), Mary Sabatino (1999-02) and Stephanie Ballard (1999-03). Carr and Ballard were also Honorable Mention selections in 2004 and 2002, respectively, while Sabatino was the program’s only First-Team All-South Region choice following the 2002 season.
“It is great to see Cole get recognized nationally this season” said College of Charleston head coach Jason Kepner. “She has worked extremely hard to make the transition to the setter position and she did a tremendous job running our offense. I am excited to see her continue to grow as a setter over the next two seasons."
The Charleston native earned the honor as she posted averages of 10.29 assists, 2.55 digs, 1.15 kills, 0.70 blocks and hit .375 while starting every match and playing in all 119 sets. Nationally, her assists per game average ranked 75th and was the second-highest in the Southern Conference. In conference only matches, she averaged 10.86 assists to finish second among Southern Conference players.
In her first full season as the Cougars’ primary setter, Dawley excelled from the very beginning as she proceeded to break her career-high with 51 assists against Portland State in the season opener and then reset that mark three more times throughout the campaign. She recorded 53 assists at Wofford, 57 against UNC Greensboro and 59 vs. Western Carolina and also broke her career-high with eight blocks at Stetson.
On the season, Dawley recorded 26 matches of 30 or more assists, including six 40-plus outings and four 50-plus performances. Her 59 assists against Western Carolina on October 24 was the third highest overall performance by a Southern Conference player in 2008 and was the most in the SoCon for a four-set match. In addition to recording a number of marks in conference play, she also led Charleston with 15 double-doubles.
Dawley’s most impressive performance, however, came in the 2008 Southern Conference Championship Match against Furman. In that contest, she became only the third Cougar since 1998 to record a triple-double as she finished the five-game match with 10 kills, 44 assists, 15 digs and a .526 hitting percentage. It was only the tenth triple-double over the last ten seasons for the College of Charleston.
She also continued to make her mark on the Cougars all-time records as her 1,225 assists on the season gave her 1,360 for her career and place her seventh all-time. Dawley is currently ninth in assists per game with a career average of 5.69 and also recorded the second-highest single season hitting percentage with a mark of .375.
In addition to earning AVCA All-South Region Honorable Mention honors, Dawley was also named First-Team All-Southern Conference, Southern Conference All-Tournament and earned Player of the Week honors during the 2008 season.
Throughout the course of the season, Dawley competed against 14 other individuals who were among the 184 nationwide that were named All-Region, Region Freshman of the Year or Honorable Mention. Those included All-Region selections Stephanie Barry (Delaware), Danielle Hepburn, Kelsey Murphy, Lia Proctor (Clemson) and Rachael Moss and Jourdan Norman (Duke). At the Honorable Mention level, she competed against Kellie Catanach (Duke), Shannon Sitzmann (Winthrop), Rachel Rourke (Oregon State) and Bridget Denson-Dorman and Ivana Kujundzic (South Carolina).
The Southern Conference was well represented in the voting as Dawley was joined by Samford’s Ashley Adams, who earned her third All-Region selection, and Chattanooga’s Lara Newberry, who was named Honorable Mention for the second consecutive season.
The American Volleyball Coaches Association has been naming All-Region and Honorable Mention teams since 1996.
2008 AVCA All-South Region Selections
Ashley Adams, Senior, Samford (Right Side/Opposite)
Megan Argabright, Senior, Western Kentucky (Middle Blocker)
Ashley Asberry, Senior, Middle Tennessee State (Middle Blocker)
Leslie Clark, Junior, Middle Tennessee State (Setter)
Brittnee Cooper, Junior, Louisiana State University (Defensive Specialist/Libero)
Elyse Cusack, Junior, University of Florida (Defensive Specialist/Libero)
Nikki Fowler, Junior, Tennessee (Outside Hitter)
Elena Martinez, Senior, Louisiana State University (Defensive Specialist/Libero)
Kelly Murphy, Freshman, University of Florida (Setter/Right Side)
Julia Noe, Senior, Western Kentucky University (Setter)
Queen Nzenwa, Senior, University of Kentucky (Middle Blocker)
Yarimar Rosa, Junior, Florida International University (Outside Hitter)
Sarah Rumely, Junior, University of Kentucky (Setter)
Brooks Webster, University of Alabama (Outside Hitter)
South Region Freshman of the Year
Kelly Murphy, Freshman, University of Florida (Setter/Right Side)
South Region Honorable Mention
Bridget Denson-Dorman, Junior, South Carolina (Setter)
Cole Dawley, Sophomore, College of Charleston (Setter)
Chloe Goldman, Junior, Tennessee (Defensive Specialist/Libero)
Ivana Kujundzic, Junior, South Carolina (Outside Hitter)
Lara Newberry, Senior, Chattanooga (Libero)
Becky Pavan, Freshman, Kentucky (Middle Blocker)
Lauren Rapp, Sophomore, Kentucky (Right Side/Opposite)
Belita Salters, Senior, South Carolina (Middle Blocker)
Chattanooga release
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. --- Coming off another record setting season, Chattanooga volleyball player Lara Newberry has been named an honorable mention to the 2008 American Volleyball Coaches Association’s All-South Region Team, which was announced on Wednesday.
This is the second time in Newberry’s career that she has been named to the team (2007), and is only the second player to receive all-region honors in UTC volleyball history. In 2003 former Lady Moc Kari Krouse was also selected to the all-region team.
In 2008 Newberry once again led the nation in both digs (777) and digs per set (6.76) for the second straight season. The Chattanooga native also set the NCAA’s record for digs in a career with 3,176 and now holds the all-time record for digs in both a career and single season (942). She also set a career-high for digs in a match with 51 in the Lady Mocs’ 3-2 win over Wofford on Oct. 11, which was a school record as well.
In addition to her all-region honor, Newberry was named the Southern Conference’s Libero of the Year earlier this year, and was tabbed first team all-conference.