SCAC Leads Nation with Three AVCA First Team All-Americans

SCAC Leads Nation with Three AVCA First Team All-Americans

(Portions of this story were taken from the Trinity University and Colorado College Athletics Websites)

LEXINGTON, Ky. --
 The American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) announced the 2021 Division III All-America teams Tuesday and five Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference players were recognized, including three First Team honorees. AVCA Release

Annie Rose Leggett and Avery Tuggle of Trinity University and Georgia Mullins of Colorado College were each named to the First Team while Trinity's Sara Flynn and Colorado College's Jenny Jenks were both Honorable Mention selections. All five earned First Team All-Region honors a week ago.

The SCAC was the only Division III conference to have three players earn First Team All-America accolades. The Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MIAA) and the Southern Athletic Association (SAA) had two players each who earned First Team honors. Its just the second time in league history three players have earned AVCA First Team All-America recognition in the same season - in 2015 Courtney Birkett and Abbe Holtz of Colorado College and Kaitlyn Foster of Southwestern University each received First Team nods

Tuggle, a senior outside hitter from Cedar Creek, Texas, is now a two-time All-American by the AVCA as she was a second-team selection during the 2019 NCAA III semifinal campaign making her Trinity's first repeat selection since the 2014 season. She is also a two-time Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Player of the Year (2019, 2021) along with being named Region 10's Player of the Year by the AVCA for this season.

A senior outside hitter, Leggett recently tied Trinity's all-time career service aces record (249) in the Tigers' 3-1 victory over No. 10 New York University in the NCAA III Hoboken Regional final. The Austin, Texas-native has reached the career mark by leading the SCAC in the category throughout the season, both in total and in per-set average, and is currently in the top-20 in NCAA III with 66 aces this season.

Flynn, also a senior, had a breakout year statistically from the opposite side en route to her first all-SCAC and All-Region first-team selections of her career along with Tuesday's All-America honorable mention. The Seattle, Washington-native ranked second in the SCAC this season in blocks per set (0.87), total blocks (105) and in hitting percentage (.331). Flynn's hitting percentage ranks second in NCAA III among rightsides, a spot she has remained in consistently throughout the season.

With Tuesday's selections, Trinity is fifth all-time amongst active NCAA III instituitions with 22 AVCA All-Americans, sixth in total AVCA All-America selections with 36.

The TU Tigers (34-2) lead NCAA III in total blocks (320.5), blocks per set (2.58), team hitting percentage (.288) and team kills (1,703), the last of which is in a tie with fellow NCAA III Championship contender, fourth-seeded University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire.

Leading the Colorado College contingent was Mullins, a senior middle blocker from Olathe, Kansas. She is one of nine Colorado College student-athletes who have earned first-team All-America honors at least once. The others are Elissa Breitbard (1987), Amy Smith (1987), Cathy Costello (1987, ’88, ’89), Sara Boyles (2001), Lizzy Counts (2017), Emily Perkins (2009, '10), Abbe Holtze (2013, '15) and Courtney Birkett (2015).

She solidified her status as one of the most dominant players in the 43-year history of CC volleyball with a pair of outstanding performances during the 2021 NCAA Division III Volleyball Championship. During the four-set victory over No. 16 Ohio Northern University in the first round, the senior middle hitter put down a match-high 20 kills to became just the 11th player in program history to record 1,000 or more in her career. With the last of her match-high 17 kills against No. 4 Wartburg College, Mullins became only the third Tiger to produce 500 or more in a single season. She joined Katharine Hauschka, who set the school record of 537 in 2004, and Holtze, who recorded 522 in 2014, on the exclusive list.

In CC’s two NCAA postseason matches this year against a pair of top-16 opponents, Mullins hit .476 and averaged 5.29 kills per set.

Jenks, the SCAC Setter of the Year and first-team all-conference selection, orchestrated Colorado College's balanced attack that ranks 22nd nationally with a .237 team hitting percentage. The Hermosa Beach, Calif., product averaged 10.94 assists per game, which ranks fourth in Division III. Jenks dished out 1,370 assists during the 2021 campaign, which ranks second on the program’s single-season list.

She also become the second CC setter to record 400 or more digs in single-season, finishing the year with 410 which ranks 28th on the program’s single-season chart.

Mullins and Jenks helped lead Colorado College to a 30-6 record and the program’s 23rd-consecutive appearance in the NCAA Tournament.

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