Bruns, Papesh, Wolf, Wood Tabbed for A-10 Player of the Year Honors

Courtesy: Atlantic 10 Conference

NEWPORT NEWS, Va.— Dayton seniors Lauren Bruns and Margo Wolf, freshman Alli Papesh, La Salle junior Katie Wood and La Salle head coach Caitlin Schweihofer earned the Atlantic 10 Conference’s top volleyball awards.

The Atlantic 10 announced the five awards along with the All-Conference, All-Rookie and All-Academic teams Thursday prior to the 2018 A-10 Volleyball Championship that begins Friday at Stuart C. Siegel Center in Richmond, Va. The major awards, All-Conference Teams and All-Rookie Team were voted on by the A-10’s head volleyball coaches. The All-Academic team was selected by the volleyball media relations directors.

Bruns, an outside hitter from Versailles, Ohio, was named the Atlantic 10 Player of the Year following a season in which she received A-10 weekly accolades on five occasions and led the league in kills (459), kills per set (4.33), points (497) and points per set (4.7).

Wolf, a libero from Cincinnati, Ohio, earned A-10 Libero of the Year honors for the second time in her career after recording 402 digs and averaging 3.79 digs per set.

Papesh, an outside hitter from Channahon, Ill., was named A-10 Rookie of the Year after finishing in the top 10 in conference-only kills per set (2.88) and hitting percentage (.273). She also led all freshman in kills, kills per set and points.

A junior from Smithtown, N.Y., Wood earned A-10 Setter of the Year honors after leading the league in assists (1,093) and assists per set (11.04). She led an offense that ranked second in the A-10 in overall and third in conference-only hitting percentage along with finishing second in overall and conference-only kills per set.

Schweihofer won her first Coach of the Year award after leading La Salle to its first-ever appearance in the Atlantic 10 Championship.

The 2018 Atlantic 10 Volleyball Championship begins Friday with two matches between No. 4 George Mason and No. 5 Saint Louis in the first quarterfinal and No. 3 La Salle and No. 6 Duquesne in the second quarterfinal. No. 1 VCU and No. 2 Dayton will face the two winners in Saturday’s semifinals. The championship final will be played Sunday at 12:00 pm ET. All three rounds of the A-10 championship will be streamed live on ESPN+.

2018 Atlantic 10 Volleyball Awards

Player of the Year: Lauren Bruns, Dayton

Libero of the Year: Margo Wolf, Dayton

Setter of the Year: Katie Wood, La Salle

Rookie of the Year: Alli Papesh, Dayton

Coach of the Year: Caitlin Schweihofer, La Salle

All-Conference First Team

Kendyll Brown, Dayton

Lauren Bruns, Dayton

Devin Corah, La Salle

Katie Wood, La Salle

Maya Taylor, Saint Louis

Tori Baldwin, VCU

Jasmin Sneed, VCU

All-Conference Second Team*

Mason Rooney, Davidson

Brooke Westbeld, Dayton

Margo Wolf, Dayton

Dani Suiter, Duquesne

Bailey Williams, George Mason

Jensen Sharrits, La Salle

Vicky Giommarini, VCU

Gina Tuzzolo, VCU

*A tie resulted in an eight person

All-Rookie Team

Alli Papesh, Dayton

Summer Slade, Duquesne

Peyton Ehmke, George Mason

ShaLi Niu, George Mason

Elizabeth Osborn, La Salle

Giovanna Charles, Saint Louis

Alyna Draper, VCU

All-Academic Team