Juniata Earns Four AVCA All-America Selections
LEXINGTON, Ky.- The Juniata women's volleyball team has earned four AVCA All-American selections for Division three this season. Middle hitter Mackenzie Coley and setter Olivia Foley earned a First Team selection, Kiona Sky Rousset-Hernandez placed on the Second Team, and Audrey Muth earned Third Team honors.
Mackenzie Coley places on the AVCA's All-America First Team for the second consecutive season. She also placed on the AVCA All-Region Team for the second time in her career, was named Landmark Conference Player of the Year and a First-Team All-Conference Player for the second consecutive season earlier this month. It's the third straight season that she has landed on an all-conference team. Entering the Elite Eight, Coley's .395 hitting percentage is eighth in DIII. Within the Landmark Conference, she leads in hitting percentage, is second in kills per set (3.46), and sixth in blocks per set (0.70). She placed on the All-Tournament Team for the NCAA Tournament Huntingdon Regional after posting a .338 hitting percentage, 29 kills, six block assists, two solo blocks and an ace across the three rounds. She earned Landmark Conference Athlete of the Week honors twice (Sept. 11, Nov. 6). Coley also had a record-setting individual match performance, posting a .731 hitting percentage with 21 kills against Lynchburg (Oct. 28). It's the fifth-best hitting percentage in program history (minimum 20 attempts), while it's the tenth-best since rally scoring was introduced in 2001 (minimum 15 attempts).
After two seasons as a Second-Team All-American, Olivia Foley earns First-Team honors for the first time in her career. She earned AVCA All-Region honors for the third time in her career, and this marked her first time as an AVCA Regional Player of the Year. She marked her third season on the Landmark All-Conference First Team earlier this month. As it stands, she is third in DIII and first in the Landmark Conference for assists per set (11.10), while she is guiding the Juniata offense to the best-hitting percentage in the country (.297). In addition to her 954 assists this season, she has 34 aces and 241 digs. Foley earned Landmark Athlete of the Week honors once this season (Oct. 30). Her 3078 assists currently puts her tenth in program history in just three seasons as the program's primary setter.
Kiona Sky Rousset-Hernandez makes it back-to-back seasons on the AVCA All-America Second Team. Earlier this month, she became a third-time AVCA All-Region Player, a two-time Landmark Conference Specialist of the Year, and a three-time All-Landmark Conference player. Rousset-Hernandez has been an effective server and passer for Juniata this season, sitting third in the conference for aces per set (0.60) and sixth in the conference for digs per set (4.79). Defensively, she's contributing to a back row that's helping to maintain the lowest opponent-hitting percentage in DII (.067). She's so far totaled 407 digs, 51 aces, and 89 assists this season. Her current career digs tally of 1586 puts her seventh in program history, having surpassed Carli Dale '05 in the NCAA Tournament Round of 32 match against Stevens.
Audrey Muth's Third Team selection marks her first time as an AVCA All-America. Earlier this month, she became a first-time AVCA All-Region player after placing on the Honorable Mention list in 2022. She also earned a place on the All-Landmark Conference Second Team. She currently is seventh in the conference for hitting percentage (.283, second among outsides/opposites) and ninth for kills per set (2.87). She leads Juniata outsides in kills (257), while she also has 85 blocks and 113 digs.
Juniata tied with Northwestern-St. Paul for the most All-Americans with four.
As the tournament's #2 seed, Juniata will face #7 Trinity in the Elite Eight in a rematch of last year's National Championship match on Wednesday, November 29th at 5:00 pm EST.