Updated! - CONGRATULATIONS to Olivia Babcock - 1st Team All-American & National Freshman of the Year!
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So well deserved.....I was concerned that Nebraska's Bergen Reilly would be the winner.....let's just say Pitt has busted through the glass ceiling with this award. Additionally, Rachel Fairbanks was 1st team and Torrey Stafford made 3rd team AA.....and both Emma Monks and Emmy Klika were Honorable Mention. Here is the link to the entire AA teams.
2023 AVCA Div. II WVB All-America Teams | AVCA Awards
Check out what players made the AVCA’s 42nd annual Division I All-America Teams.
www.avca.org
So happy for Babcock and absolutely well deserved, I thought it would go to Reilly as well but Olivia has really been the star for Pitt all year while Reilly is just one of several for Nebraska. Liv has such a bright future ahead of her!So well deserved.....I was concerned that Nebraska's Bergen Reilly would be the winner.....let's just say Pitt has busted through the glass ceiling with this award. Additionally, Torrey Stafford made 3rd team AA.....and both Emma Monks and Emmy Klika were Honorable Mention. Here is the link to the entire AA teams.
2023 AVCA Div. II WVB All-America Teams | AVCA Awards
Check out what players made the AVCA’s 42nd annual Division I All-America Teams.
Paul Sunderland thinks that Liv is a future USA Olympian.
Credit to Fish for having the raw talent AND having the right plan to leverage it. We are very lucky fans.
pittdan77
Athletic Director
Elena Scott was hosed, she should have been first team for sure. Only Libero was Lexi Rodriguez. Scott should have made it over Fingall from TN or Miner from Stanford IMO.
Yes....and I should probably hold my tongue on this....but I won't.....Monks should have been a 2nd or 3rd team AA.
pittdan77
Athletic Director
Yeah. I agree. She carried Louisville at times when their front row couldn't set blocks. She's easily one of the top three liberos. It's not a position I know well so I won't say who is the best but that position has become so important in the women's game. It shouldn't be ignored.
She doesn't need to be "artificially" motivated.
She is a very driven athlete to be the best (see her service run in the 4th set against Louisville).
You're right, but I'm superstitious and like any extra advantage lol
I'm sure some old dude will make a case for Dorsett, but yeah #1 in my books.
You know, I almost think that final match vs Pitt may have kept her off the 1st team. I would guess all of the coaches on the committee saw it, and didn't see many other matches. I mean, how much time do they have to watch matches of teams that they don't play?
I really thought Reilly would get it, although I also thought Babcock deserved it. Clearly, the committee didn’t think as highly of Reilly as some of us thought, as she “only” made 2nd team AA. Babcock was the only freshman to make the first team.
I was glad to see my Santa Monica neighbor, Ella Rubin of Stanford, make the 2nd team. When I went to see Stafford play in HS it was against Ella’s team, Marymount HS. The two public high schools around here have good volleyball, but not near the quality of the parochial and private schools. Plus, if you play in the public league you are going to be playing maybe 4 matches a year against quality teams. So, like Josh Rosen before her, she became a Jew playing sports at a Catholic high school. Rosen had to drive an hour to play; Marymount is only 10 to 15 minutes away. The top baseball players from here, like Max Fried, usually go to private HS on baseball scholarships although a few have gone to Santa Monica HS. (Lucas Giolito, who also is from Santa Monica, went to Harvard-Westlake with Fried.)
I went to the match with two of her brothers (one of whom was dating one of her teammates) and they introduced me to the “pro” evaluators who I now know. Ella was very highly recruited but there was no real competition for Stanford. Stafford was a junior and had just committed to Pitt. I think Ella had committed to Stanford as a sophomore. She was the top player in her class in Southern California, a year ahead of Babcock and Stafford.
I was glad to see my Santa Monica neighbor, Ella Rubin of Stanford, make the 2nd team. When I went to see Stafford play in HS it was against Ella’s team, Marymount HS. The two public high schools around here have good volleyball, but not near the quality of the parochial and private schools. Plus, if you play in the public league you are going to be playing maybe 4 matches a year against quality teams. So, like Josh Rosen before her, she became a Jew playing sports at a Catholic high school. Rosen had to drive an hour to play; Marymount is only 10 to 15 minutes away. The top baseball players from here, like Max Fried, usually go to private HS on baseball scholarships although a few have gone to Santa Monica HS. (Lucas Giolito, who also is from Santa Monica, went to Harvard-Westlake with Fried.)
I went to the match with two of her brothers (one of whom was dating one of her teammates) and they introduced me to the “pro” evaluators who I now know. Ella was very highly recruited but there was no real competition for Stanford. Stafford was a junior and had just committed to Pitt. I think Ella had committed to Stanford as a sophomore. She was the top player in her class in Southern California, a year ahead of Babcock and Stafford.
It's up there.
Stephanie Williams broke her foot 9 games into her true freshman year and took a redshirt. As a redshirt freshman?
467 kills (to Liv's 408)
308 digs (to Liv's 155)
16 double doubles
Obviously, Olivia has different defensive responsibilities and is a much better blocker. If you said Olivia's was better because of the blend of individual & team accolades, I wouldn't really argue.
Any chance I have to give the most creative offensive player I've seen in Pitt Script her due, I'm gonna take though. Her & Mariah Bell got this thing started. Lund & Ndee made us annually competitive. And if Babcock/Stafford/Tautua'a/Bayless hold together with Fisher, I'd honestly be surprised if we don't reach the promised land.
Steph is one of my good friends, and I always tell her that she is the one responsible for turning Pitt vball into the powerhouse it is today, haha. Between her, Layne, and Nika, who were so good at the time.....it turns out that trio would be surpassed by the Lund/Ndee/Gray era......which is now likely to be in turn dominated by the Fairbanks/Babcock/Stafford era. Just an unreal run of players.
pittdan77
Athletic Director
If that's the case, it was a disservice to her season. Scott played like a machine in the match at the Pete and she sort of carried the program when they had trouble setting blocks this year. The problem in that last game is that she can only be asked to do so much. That last play was a microcosm of the last three sets. Louisville had almost no idea who to block because Fairbanks had them so twisted and Emma Monks throws down the hardest kill she's hit all season.
