Nov. 19, 2009

2009 All-Conference Teams

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. - After a tie in voting conducted by the league's head coaches, Dayton junior middle blocker Lindsay Fletemier and Saint Louis senior middle blocker Sammi McCloud share the Atlantic 10 volleyball Player of the Year honors, it was announced today. McCloud repeats as Player of the Year while both standouts earn first-team All-Conference honors.

In that same vote, senior Whitney Roth of Saint Louis was tabbed Setter of the Year and Xavier's Stephanie Vorherr was named Libero and Rookie of the Year. Saint Louis head coach Anne Kordes earned the Coach of the Year honors and in a vote of the A-10's sports information directors, senior outside hitter Kelly Ruth of Xavier was named the Student-Athlete of the Year.

Fletemier leads the league in hitting percentage with a .402 clip while averaging 3.56 kills per set to rank tied for second overall in the A-10. The redshirt junior from Garden City, Mich., is a two-time first-team All-Conference selection and earned A-10 Player of the Week honors four times this season. She posted 20 or more kills in five matches this season and ranks fifth in UD history in block solos (80) and 11th in kills (1,153).

McCloud repeats as the A-10 Player of the Year after ranking in the top five in the A-10 in all offensive categories. A native of Columbia, Ill., the senior is one of the most decorated players in SLU history and has worked her way into the Billikens' career top 10 in five statistical categories. She ranks fifth with 1,376 kills, seventh with 1,102 digs, ninth with 241 block assists, 262 total blocks and 116 service aces. Moreover, she is just the fifth player in program history who is a member of both the 1,000-kill and 1,000-dig clubs.

Roth becomes the first volleyball student-athlete to earn a major award three straight seasons after earning her third consecutive Setter of the Year honor. The senior from Louisville, Ky., leads the league in assists for the third straight season averaging 11.14 per set overall on the year and is just the fourth player from a current A-10 program to compile 5,000 career assists. Last season, she became the program's all-time assist leader (5,280 assists currently).

Fletemier, McCloud and Roth are joined on the All-Conference first-team by Bridget Fonke of Saint Louis, Dayton's Becky Novacek, Yun Yi Zhang from Temple and Xavier's Claire Paszkiewicz.

The second-team is comprised of Xavier teammates Hillary Otte and Kelly Ruth, Megan Boken of Saint Louis, George Washington's Katie Butz, Liz Homan from Duquesne, Katie Wells of Fordham and Temple's Jackie Morrison.

Vorherr has enjoyed an impressive rookie season for Xavier after earning both Rookie and Libero of the Year honors. A native of Cincinnati, Ohio, she earned five weekly A-10 awards on the season after being named Rookie of the Week twice and Defensive Player of the Week three times. With 492 digs on the season, she tied the school record for single-season digs and led the A-10 in league play with 4.82 digs per set.

Vorherr headlines the All-Rookie team which consists of teammate Alex Smith, Rachel Krabacher of Dayton, Sara Scheirman from Duquesne, George Washington teammates Candace Silva-Martin and Lauren Whyte and Jasmine Waters of Temple.

Ruth is the A-10 Student-Athlete of the Year and is making her third appearance on the All-Academic squad. She enters this week's A-10 Championship as her team leader in kills per set at 2.70. In the classroom, the Elyria, Ohio, resident boasts a 3.92 grade point average while majoring in finance.

Ruth is joined on the Academic All-Conference team by Saint Louis teammates Whitney Roth and Whitney Behrens, Dayton's Lindsay Fletemier and Kacie Hausfeld, Lauren Kaminsky of Xavier and Jackie Morrison from Temple.

Kordes is in her sixth season as head coach at Saint Louis and has compiled a 125-63 overall record while repeating as A-10 Coach of the Year. She led the Billikens to a sweep of then-No. 10 Hawaii earlier in the season for the program's third win over a ranked team in school history and helped guide SLU to its second straight regular season title. Kordes is a 1998 graduate of Louisville.