SHERMAN, Texas – In exclusive all‐conference voting by the head coaches and sports information directors of the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference, Maddie Fate of Trinity University was selected the SCAC Player‐of‐the‐Year while the Trinity coaching staff, led by head coach Julie Jenkins, were named the SCAC Coaching Staff‐of‐the‐Year for the second consecutive year. Complete Release

In the same balloting, Texas Lutheran University’s Faith Coldewey was voted Backrow Player-of-the-Year and Colorado College’s Annie Steger earned Setter-of-the-Year honors. Trinity’s Taylor Starr was selected as Freshman-of-the-Year.

A fifth-year middle blocker from New York, N.Y., Fate leads the SCAC and is eighth in the nation in hitting percentage (.404) while ranking second in the league and 23rd in the nation in blocks per set (1.11 per set). Her 107 total blocks lead the conference heading into this weekend’s conference tournament, and she is on pace to become just the fourth player in league history to lead the league in both hitting percentage and total blocks for two consecutive years. A 2023 AVCA Second Team All-American, Fate is averaging 2.8 points per game (second on the team; 13th in the SCAC) and was the conference’s Offensive Player-of-the-Week in Week 8 when she led Trinity to a pair of league wins against Schreiner and Texas Lutheran, which included a .500 hitting performance against TLU. Fate’s selection as Offensive Player-of-the-Year marks a record 19th time a Trinity student-athlete has taken home the league’s highest honor and the fourth consecutive year a TU Tiger has earned the award – following former teammates Avery Tuggle (2021) and Sara Flynn (2022) and current teammate Mackenize Logan (2023).

Fate received 13 votes in the balloting for POTY while junior outside hitter Carolyn Dormady of Colorado College was next with eight votes. Senior middle hitter Addyson Tiffin of McMurry University picked up the remaining first-place vote.

Steger, a senior setter from Half Moon Bay, Calif., currently leads the league and is 13th in the nation in assists per set (10.34) – an average that increases to 10.87 for conference-only matches. Steger helped direct the Tigers to an SCAC-leading .242 hitting percentage, which increased to .257 during conference play, as well as the league’s highest kills per set numbers at 13.48 overall and 14.19 in conference-only matches heading into this weekend’s tournament. She also added 3.13 digs per set during conference play (23rd in the SCAC) and was named the SCAC Setter of the Week three times during the regular season (Weeks 1, 5 and 8). A First Team All-SCAC selection for the first time in her career, Steger’s selection as Setter-of-the-Year marks the fourth time in the short five-year history of the award that a CC player has taken home the honor. Isabelle Aragon-Menzel won the inaugural award after the 2020-21 season and Jenny Jenks received the accolade following both the 2021 and 2022 seasons.

In the balloting for Setter-of-the-Year, Steger was the top pick on 12 ballots, while senior setter/outside hitter Shavonne Respondek of Texas Lutheran was second with five first place votes. Sophomore setter Kendall DeRivel of Trinity and junior setter Annika Flora of Southwestern both received two votes each and junior setter Carli Colbert of McMurry picked up the remaining first-place vote.

Coldewey, a senior libero/defensive specialist from Floresville, Texas, leads the SCAC and is seventh in the nation in digs, averaging 6.18 per set heading into this weekend’s conference tournament. She was even better in conference play, averaging a league-leading 6.86 digs per set. A three-time SCAC Defensive Player-of-the-Week this season (Weeks 5, 7 and 11), Coldewey has 593 total digs (third in the SCAC and 15th in the nation) and surpassed 1,000 career digs earlier this year. Coldewey’s selection as Backrow Player-of-the-Year marks a conference record sixth time a Texas Lutheran student-athlete has earned the accolade, joining former Bulldogs Megan Lee (2013 and 2014), Jaci Chambers (2018) and Lexi Morris (2021 and 2022).

Coldewey received 10 votes in the Backrow Player-of-the-Year balloting followed by sophomore libero Laynie Kovacs of Austin College who received six votes. Sophomore defensive specialist/libero Meghan Gannon of Colorado College and senior libero Kara Spice of University of St. Thomas, who last year’s Backrow Player-of-the-Year, were listed atop two ballots while senior defensive specialist Geneva Nedrow of Southwestern and junior libero Jenna Rodriguez of Trinity received the remaining first place votes.

Starr, a first-year middle blocker from Southlake, Texas, currently leads Trinity and the SCAC in blocks per set (1.13) and is 22nd in the nation heading into this weekend’s conference tournament. Should Starr maintain her standing atop the conference in the category, she would become just the fifth freshman and first since Trinity’s Emma Funk in 2018 to lead the conference in blocks per set. Her 97 total blocks are good for second in the league standings, and she also averages 1.15 kills per set while attacking at a .240 clip. Starr is a big reason the Tigers are currently sixth in the nation in blocks per set (2.53) and fifth in total team blocks (258.0).

Starr is the fifth Trinity player in program history to receive Freshman-of-the-Year honors, following former Tigers Caroline Keener (2005), Maggie Emodi (2011), Avery Tuggle (2017) and current teammate Reagan Whatley (2022). She received nine votes in this year’s FOTY balloting, followed by first-year middle blocker Andie Lozano-Lomeli of Texas Lutheran who picked up five votes. First-year outside hitter Brooklynne Fitzgerald of Concordia University (Texas) and first-year setter Gaby Torres of Schreiner received three votes each and first-year middle blocker Brooklyn Spikes of Southwestern received the remaining two first-place votes.

Head coach Julie Jenkins and her staff led AVCA 18th-ranked Trinity to a 21-6 overall mark, a 13-1 conference record, and the No. 1 overall seed in this weekend’s SCAC championship tournament – the fourth consecutive year the Tigers have entered conference postseason as the top overall seed. In her 41st season as a head coach and 40th at Trinity, Jenkins leads active NCAA Division III volleyball coaches in terms of victories, and stands second among all-time Division III coaches, becoming the 10th coach in NCAA history across all divisions, third in NCAA III, to cross the 1,000-win plateau on October 1, 2021. Just this past Saturday, Jenkins won her 1,100th career game as the Tigers defeated McMurry, 3-0, at the final conference crossover of the regular season. Heading into this weekend’s conference tournament, she has an overall career mark of 1,101-441 (.716) and she is the only SCAC coach in any sport to attain 400 or more conference wins, hitting that milestone last season in the team’s regular season finale. Her conference winning percentage of .912 (413-40) is the highest of any current or former volleyball coach in SCAC history.

The award marks the 17th time Jenkins has been recognized by her peers as the conference’s Coach‐of-the‐Year (or Coaching Staff-of-the-Year), making her the most decorated head coach in any sport in league history.

To view the entire 2024 All-SCAC Volleyball Team, click here.