November 17, 2015

AVCA All-America

BLUFFTON, Ohio - The awards continue to roll in for senior Jenny Brown (St. Marys/Memorial) who was named Honorable Mention All-America by the American Volleyball Coaches Association following Bluffton's third straight NCAA Regional appearance. She is the first Bluffton volleyball player to earn All-America status after her First Team All-Great Lakes Region recognition less than a week ago.

Brown took the conference by storm in 2012 and she never stopped improving as evidenced by her selection as a First Team All-Great Lakes Region honoree this season. Brown is in rarefied air as the first Heartland Conference volleyball player to be named All-Region since Jamie Grauvogel from Mount St. Joseph was honored in 2010. The talented middle followed in the footsteps of Jennifer McDaniel and Sara Lehman Wakefield who were named AVCA All-Region in 1996 and 1997, respectively.

While many players struggle to keep up with expectations for their final season, Jenny Brown blew them out of the water with her finest year as a Beaver. And that is saying something for the only volleyball player in Bluffton history to be a First Team All-Heartland Conference selection for four straight years! Brown obliterated the previous single-season hitting percentage high of .318, set by Courtney Zimmerman in 2010, with her off the charts .343 this year.

Her career hitting percentage of .290 is second Zimmerman's school-best .293 mark. Brown is fourth all-time with 1,270 career kills and her 2.60 kills per set is ninth all-time. At the net, Brown continued to fluster Bluffton's opponents, racking up 104 blocks which added up to 398 total as a Beaver, good for sixth all-time on the career list. Brown's 378 kills this season placed her third in the conference, while her .343 hitting percentage was second to HCAC Most Valuable Player Courtney Crawford's .354 attacking percentage. Brown was a three-time HCAC Offensive Player of the Week and she was named the HCAC Tournament Most Valuable Player.

For the third consecutive season and the fourth time in the past seven years, Coach Yarnell and his Bluffton University volleyball team earned the right to play in the NCAA Regionals following their Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference tournament championship win at host and #1 seed Hanover. The Beavers fell to #6 ranked Wittenberg University on Friday, Nov. 13, in four sets. Wittenberg advanced to the NCAA Elite 8 following a dominating victory over #1 seed and regional host Juniata College.

-BEAVERS-