Lady Demon Volleyball | 4/21/2018 5:52:00 PM
BATON ROUGE – A near record-setting season by
Reagan Rogers earned her recognition as one of the top collegiate volleyball players in Louisiana.
Rogers and teammate
Channing Burleson were named to the Louisiana Sports Writers Association's All-Louisiana Volleyball Team, which was announced Saturday.
The teams were voted on by the volleyball media relations members in the state based on school nominations. Players were selected on a 12-1 voting scale while liberos were voted in a separate category on a 2-1 basis.
"I'm happy to see Channing and Reagan get recognized again for the impressive seasons they had," third-year head coach
Sean Kiracofe said. "With the work that both put in during the year, it is definitely an earned honor. The awards are special because of the rivalries between state schools that may not be scheduled on a yearly basis."
Rogers delivered a tremendous junior campaign, hammering 427 kills, the second-highest single-season total in program history. This is the second individual honor for Rogers, who was named first-team All-Southland Conference as well as first-team Academic All-SLC.
Rogers tallied the second-most points in voting by the state SIDs and finished runner-up in Player of the Year voting to LSU right side Taylor Bannister.
Burleson collected the third-highest dig total in school history with 573 en route to earning Southland Conference Libero of the Year honors. In two seasons at libero, Burleson has tallied 1,145 digs and owns the Nos. 3 and 4 spots on the school single-season list. Like Rogers, Burleson was a first-team Academic All-Southland selection.
LSU swept the player awards and Xavier's first-year head coach earned the top honors on the team.
Bannister was named the Player of the Year and Freshman of the Year, while another freshman Raigen Cianciulli was named Libero of the Year. Pat Kendrick of Xavier was named the Coach of the Year after taking Xavier to the NAIA nationals. Northwestern State's
Hannah Brister earned the only non-Bannister vote for Freshman of the Year.
Bannister and Cianciulli were joined on the first team by Rogers, outside hiters Juliana Tomasoni of Xavier, Hali Wisnoskie of UL-Lafayette and Marta Monne of Louisiana Tech. Middle blocker Shanna Spree of McNeese completes the first All-Louisiana team.
Bannister helped lead the Tigers to their first NCAA appearance since 2014 and she earned AVCA Honorable Mention All-America honors as well as earning honors on the All-SEC and league freshman team. The Missouri City, Texas, native led the Tigers in kills with a total of 361, averaging a team-high 3.22 kills per set. She had four 20-plus kill matches and led the Tigers in kills in 19 of the 30 matches.
Cianciulli earned AVCA All-South Region Honorable Mention designation, leading the Tigers in digs with 499, the eighth most in a season in Tiger history. She had 10 or more digs in 26 matches and 20 or more digs in 10 matches.
Kendrick, a longtime D1 head coach at George Mason, led Xavier in her first season to a 23-2 record, the highest winning percentage by a state school since 1991 and the third best in state history as the team captured the Gulf Coast Athletic Conference regular-season and tournament championships and earned a berth in the NAIA nationals. Xavier set school records of 13.36 kills per set, 2.39 aces a set, 1.82 blocks per set and 12.47 assists per set.
The second team was made up of outside hitters Desiree Frey of Centenary, Stacey Reilly of UL-Lafayette and Kayla Black of Xavier, setters Justin Bowers of Tulane and Anna Zwiebel of LSU, along with middle blocker Dree'Ana Abram of UL-Lafayette. Burleson was the second-team libero.
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ALL-LSWA COLLEGE VOLLEYBALL TEAM (AS CHOSEN BY THE VOLLEYBALL CONTACTS IN THE STATE OF LOUISIANA. Voters could not vote for athletes or coaches from their schools. Voting was conducted on a 12-1 scale based on points for six players on team; 2-1 basis for liberos.)
FIRST TEAM
POS, NAME/SCHOOL/CLASS/HOMETOWN/NOTES (PTS)
RS, Taylor Bannister/LSU/FR./Missouri City, Texas/ACVA All-America HM, ALL-SEC, 361 Kills (126)
OH, Reagan Rogers/Northwestern State/JR./Blanco, Texas/All-SLC 1st Team, Led SLC with 256 kills (111)
OH, Juliana Tomasoni/Xavier/SR./Nova Trento, Brazil/ACVA SEC Region 1st Team, MVP GCAC Tourney (72)
OH, Hali Wisnoskie/UL-Lafayette/FR./Columbus, Texas/ SBC Freshman of Year, SBC 1st team, 332 kills (68)
MB, Shanna Spree/McNeese/SO./Houston, Texas/All-SLC 2nd team, 294 kills (67)
OH, Marta Monne/Louisiana Tech/SR./Milan, Italy/All-C-USA 2nd team, 320 kills (66)
L, Raigen Cianciulli/LSU/FR./Spring, Texas/AVCA HM All-South, 499 digs (12)
PLAYER OF THE YEAR – Taylor Bannister, LSU
Voting – Bannister 7,
Reagan Rogers, Northwestern State 3, Stacey Reilly, UL-Lafayette 1, Juliana Tomasoni, Xavier, 1
LIBERO OF THE YEAR – Raigen Cianciulli, LSU
Voting – Cianciulli 5,
Channing Burleson, Northwestern State 4, Sydney Davis, UL-Lafayette 2, Kacey LeBlanc, ULM 1
FRESHMAN OF THE YEAR – Taylor Bannister, LSU
Voting – Bannister 11,
Hannah Brister, Northwestern State 1
COACH OF THE YEAR – Pat Kendrick, Xavier
Voting – Kendrick 5, Fran Flory, LSU 4, Heather Mazeitis-Fontenot, UL-Lafayette 3
SECOND TEAM
OH, Desiree Frey/Centenary/SR./Garland, Texas/All-SCAC 2nd team, 401 kills (54)
S, Justin Bowers/Tulane/SR./Dana Point, California/955 assists, 41 serves aces (44)
OH, Stacey Reilly/UL-Lafayette/SR./Houston, Texas/ 326 kills, 21 aces, 315 digs (42)
OH, Kayla Black/Xavier/FR./Magnolia, Texas/All-GCAC 1st team, 243 kills, 36 aces (41)
MB, Dree'Ana Abram/UL-Lafayette/SO./Marshall, Texas/All-SBC 1st team, 239 kills (35)
S, Anna Zwiebel/LSU/SO./Louisville, Kentucky/62 kills, 1,069 assists, 18 aces (33)
L, Channing Burleson/Northwestern State/Midland, Texas/SLC Libero of Year, 330 digs (11)
HONORABLE MENTION
Jessica Bartczyszyn, UL-Lafayette; Eva LeGuillou, Xavier; Gina Tillis, LSU.
