SCAC Announces All-Conference Volleyball Team

SCAC Announces All-Conference Volleyball Team

LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. -- In exclusive all‐conference voting by the head coaches of the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC), Avery Tuggle of Trinity University was selected SCAC Player‐of‐the‐Year while TU Tiger head coach Julie Jenkins was named SCAC Coach‐of‐the‐Year for a record 14th time. Complete Release

In the same balloting, Kaylyn Latin of University of St. Thomas was selected SCAC Backrow Player‐of‐the‐Year, and Meaghan Hohman of Colorado College earned SCAC Freshman‐of‐the‐Year honors.

A junior outside hitter from Cedar Creek, Texas, Tuggle currently leads the SCAC in points (452) and is in the top five in kills (384 – second), kills per set (3.10 – third) and points per set (3.6 – third). A three-time SCAC Offensive Player-of-the-Week selection (Week 1, Week 4 and Week 9), the versatile Tuggle is also ranked in the top 20 in the conference in service aces (38 – 10th), digs (407 – 12th), blocks (53 – 20th) and hitting percentage (.242 – 17th). She had 17 double-double performances over the course of the season, including a streak of five straight matches from Sept. 14 to Sept. 25 where she posted double-figure outputs for both kills and digs.

Tuggle's selection as SCAC Player-of-the-Year marks a record 15th time a Trinity student-athlete has taken home the league's highest honor and snaps a five-year streak of Colorado College student-athletes earning the award. Tuggle received six first-place votes from the coaches in the balloting for Player-of-the-Year. Colorado College's Jordan Mullen earned two votes and Lauren Crabtree of Southwestern University picked up the remaining first-place vote.

Kaylyn Latin, a junior libero from Houston, Texas, was selected the league's Backrow Player-of-the-Year after leading the SCAC during the regular season in digs per set (6.52) and finishing fourth in total digs (645). If players from Division III transitioning teams were included in the national rankings, her digs per set total would currently rank fifth. The SCAC Defensive Player-of-the-Week in Week 8, Latin reached double figures in digs in 24 of the 25 matches she played and recorded 30 or more digs nine times this season – including a season-high 45 digs (second highest total in the league this season) in a five-set victory over Sul Ross State on Sept. 13.

Latin's selection as SCAC Backrow Player-of-the-Year is obviously the first major award for first-year league member University of St. Thomas and marks the second time a student-athlete from a team in its inaugural season in the SCAC has received the honor. Megan Lee of Texas Lutheran University received Backrow POTY honors in the Bulldogs' first season in the SCAC in 2013. In this year's balloting, Latin received six votes from the coaches while Marissa Sandoval of Centenary College and Sami Lin of Trinity received two first-place votes each.

Meaghan Hohman of Colorado College, a first-year right side from Orinda, Calif., earned SCAC Freshman-of-the-Year honors after finishing the regular season with a .326 hitting percentage (fourth in the SCAC). Once Hohman entered the starting lineup, she helped lead the Tigers to a 16-match winning streak before succumbing to an injury that forced her to miss the final six matches of the season. Over that stretch, Hohman had two double-digit kill performances from her right side attacking position, including a 12-kill effort against Illinois College on Oct. 11 when she hit .846 (12 kills, 1 error on 13 attempts) – the fourth-highest single-match hitting percentage in program history.

Hohman, who picked up four first-place votes in the balloting, is the first CC student-athlete to earn SCAC Freshman-of-the-Year honors since current teammate Marguerite Spaethling received the award following the 2016 season. She is the sixth Colorado College player to receive the honor – the most for one program since the award was established prior to the 2001 season. Larissa Ramirez of University of Dallas and Kayla Lofland of Schreiner University both received two votes, followed by Lexi Morris of Texas Lutheran and Marisa Amarino of Trinity, who earned one vote each.

Coach Julie Jenkins guided Trinity to a regular season overall mark of 31‐4 as well as a 17‐1 SCAC record as the Tigers shared regular season conference champion honors with Colorado College. The top seed at this weekend's SCAC championship tournament, Trinity is currently ranked sixth in the nation. Owner of a 966‐420 career record (.697), Jenkins is currently the NCAA Division III winningest active coach and ranks third all-time in victories. Her 341 conference wins are the most in league history in any sport and her .905 career conference winning percentage is the highest of any current or former volleyball coach.

The award marks the 14th time Jenkins has been recognized by her peers as the conference's Coach‐of‐the‐Year, and her 14 COTY awards place her alongside current Trinity men's soccer coach Paul McGinlay for the most COTY honors by a head coach in any sport in league history.

To view the entire 2019 All-SCAC Volleyball Team, click here.