2016 G-MAC Volleyball All-Conference Team (PDF)


BLUE ASH, Ohio - On the eve to the start of the fifth annual Great Midwest Athletic Conference Volleyball Championship at Mason Arena, the all-conference team was released by the league during an inaugural banquet.
 
All six teams in the postseason were in attendance for the presentation of the individual awards along with first, second and all-freshman team honors.
 
The head coaches from Cedarville, Davis & Elkins, Kentucky Wesleyan, Malone, Trevecca Nazarene and Ursuline, provided thoughts about their season to date at the Embassy Suites hotel in Blue Ash.
 
A total of 22 student-athletes comprised this year’s all-conference team. The G-MAC Player of the Year, G-MAC Coach of the Year and G-MAC Freshman of the Year, were also unveiled. The coaches’ voting determines the all-conference team members.
 
A total of seven Cedarville Yellow Jackets, the top seed and regular-season champion, made the all-conference team with four first-team selections and three more second-team honorees.
 
Cedarville’s Gabby Olson (Gibsonia, PA) was named the 2016 G-MAC Player of the Year. The 6-4 junior transfer middle blocker from Clarion University made an immediate impact in head coach Doug Walters’ system with 3.06 kills per set and 1.14 blocks per game.
 
Olson ranked second in the league in hitting percentage at .338, third in total points and fifth in total kills. She was joined on the first-team ballot with the following teammates: senior outside hitter Abby Shelton, senior setter Kristin Cardwell and senior libero Angela Becker. Front-row hitters Taylor Wilkerson (2015 G-MAC Freshman of the Year), Rachel Krikke and Krissy Pratt, were each named to the second team.
 
Also earning the G-MAC Coach of the Year from Cedarville was Walters. His squad is 24-8 overall and reeled off a 9-1 record in the league. The Yellow Jackets have also been ranked sixth and seventh (most recently) in the NCAA DII Midwest Region Rankings as they aspire for the postseason beyond the conference tournament.
 
Since entering the league in 2012, the Yellow Jackets under Walters have won over 90 percent of their matches with a 48-5 record in conference play.
 
A pair of freshmen, Trevecca Nazarene’s Hanna Matthews and Kentucky Wesleyan’s Sierra Morrow, doubled with selections to both the second and all-freshman team.
 
It was a busy night for Trevecca Nazarene’s freshman Hanna Matthews (Ooltewah, TN), who collected a trifecta of awards in her first season as the starting setter for the Trojans. Matthews was named the G-MAC Freshman of the Year, to the G-MAC All-Second Team and the G-MAC All-Freshman Team, while filling the big shoes left behind from Loren Bennett.
 
Matthews averaged 9.50 assists per set for the Trojans, who went 8-2 in the league this season. She was one of two freshman in the league (Sierra Morrow, Kentucky Wesleyan) to double up on the all-conference team with multiple selections.

Davis & Elkins, the Black division champion, saw two talented hitters make the first team with senior Elizabeth Estes, the newest member of the 1,000 career kill club and junior middle Sasha Johnson. Trevecca Nazarene (Matthews, Katelyn Atkinson, Alex Reuter), Malone (Mallory Adams, Lynsey Trusty, Hannah Eliason) and Ohio Valley (Alyx Henry, Megan Morrison, Kayla Stewart) each had three selections to the all-conference team while Kentucky Wesleyan and Ursuline, each had two. 
 
Quarterfinal action at the G-MAC Volleyball Championship begins today from Mason, Ohio, as No. 2 Trevecca Nazarene and No. 3 Ursuline meet at 5 p.m. EST before No. 2 Malone and No. 3 Kentucky Wesleyan square off at 7:30 p.m. EST.
 
All matches will be streamed live at G-MACSports.com with the following URL: https://portal.stretchinternet.com/gmac/
 
NOTE: The volleyball championship program at the tournament incorrectly printed that G-MAC Player of the Year Gabby Olson is from Trevecca Nazarene. Olson attends Cedarville. We apologize for the error.