SCAC Announces All-Conference Volleyball Team

SCAC Announces All-Conference Volleyball Team

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – In exclusive all‐conference voting by the head coaches of the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference, Sara Flynn of Trinity University was selected the SCAC Player‐of‐the‐Year honors while the Texas Lutheran University coaching staff, led by head coach Phyllis Flower, were named the SCAC Coaching Staff‐of‐the‐Year. Complete Release

In the same balloting, Texas Lutheran’s Lexi Morris was voted Backrow Player-of-the-Year and Colorado College’s Jenny Jenks earned Setter-of-the-Year honors – both earning those awards for the second consecutive year. Trinity’s Reagan Whatley was selected as Freshman-of-the-Year.

A senior right side from Seattle, Wash., Flynn leads the fourth-ranked Trinity squad in kills (245 – 11th in the SCAC), kills per set (2.61 – eighth in the SCAC) and overall points (286.5 – 15th in the SCAC) heading into this weekend’s conference tournament. As witness to her versatility, she is currently hitting .371 (second in the SCAC; 26th in the nation) while also averaging 0.81 blocks per set (10th in the SCAC) with 76 total blocks (seventh in the SCAC). A two-time Offensive Player-of-the-Week during the 2022 season (Weeks 8 and 9), Flynn’s selection as SCAC Player‐of‐the‐Year marks a record 17th time a Trinity student‐athlete has taken home the league’s highest honor, including a year ago when her former teammate Avery Tuggle shared the honor with Colorado College’s Georgia Mullins.

Flynn received five votes in the balloting for POTY, followed by Southwestern University’s Emma White who received three votes. Paige Havel of University of St. Thomas picked up the remaining first-place vote.

Whatley, a first year outside hitter from The Woodlands, Texas, made an immediate impact for Trinity and established herself as a key offensive component as a six-rotation starter on one of the nation’s best teams. Entering this weekend’s tournament, Whatley is second on the Tiger squad with 190 kills and 234 digs and third with 238.0 points and 2.52 digs per set. Additionally, she is currently second among all first-year players in both points and points per set (2.7).

Whatley is the fourth Trinity player in program history to receive Freshman-of-the-Year honors, following former Tigers Avery Tuggle (2017), Maggie Emodi (2011) and Caroline Keener (2005). She received six votes in this year’s FOTY balloting, followed by Audrey Cataline of St. Thomas who picked up the remaining three first-place votes.

CC’s Jenny Jenks, a junior from Hermosa Beach, Calif., earned both Setter-of-the-Year and First Team all-conference recognition for the second consecutive year after leading the SCAC in assists per set (10.00 – 12th in the nation) and assists (970 – 11th in the nation) during the regular season. Her 58 assists in a 3-2 win at Schreiner on Oct. 1 were the single-match high for any player in the league this season. Jenks is also currently eighth in the conference in both services aces (37) and aces per set (0.32). Jenks is the first player to earn back-to-back Setter-of-the-Year recognition in the short time the award has been presented and the second consecutive CC player to receive the honor, following Isabelle Aragon-Menzel who earned the inaugural award in 2020-21.

Jenks was the top pick of four coaches in the Setter-of-the-Year balloting followed by Marisa Amarino of Trinity and Shavonne Respondek of Texas Lutheran University who each received two first-place nods. Brianne Tseng of Austin College received the remaining first place vote.

TLU’s Lexi Morris, a senior libero/defensive specialist from Victoria, Texas, was selected the league’s Backrow Player-of-the-Year for a second consecutive season and once again leads the SCAC (and is second in the nation) in total digs with 679. She is also averaging a league-high 5.66 digs per set, which is good for 20th in the nation. Morris has steadily climbed the SCAC career digs chart during the 2022 season and currently sits at fourth all-time with 2,471, just 28 away from third place. Her career average of 5.57 digs per set is currently the third-best in league history of those who have played 200 or more sets. Morris is the third different TLU player to earn Backrow POTY honors, and one of five players in league history to win the award in back-to-back seasons, including former Bulldog Megan Lee, who won the honor in back-to-back years in 2013 and 2014.

Morris received seven first place votes in the balloting, followed by Jenna Rodriguez of Trinity and Kara Spice of St. Thomas who received one first-place vote each.

Head coach Phyllis Fowler and her staff led Texas Lutheran to its highest conference win total since joining the SCAC prior to the 2013 season as the Bulldogs posted an 11-5 league record, which included the program’s first-ever win over Colorado College on Oct. 7 on the CC’s home court, snapping a 24-match losing streak to the Tigers. Arriving at TLU after a highly successful high school coaching career, Fowler has amassed an overall record of 77-73 in her fifth year in Seguin and has guided the Bulldogs to the SCAC tournament each of the last four seasons, including this year where Texas Lutheran will open as the fourth seed against Austin College on Friday.

This the first SCAC Coaching Staff-of-the-Year honor for Fowler and the Bulldogs’ volleyball program since joining the conference a decade ago.

To view the entire 2022 All-SCAC Volleyball Team, click here.

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