BIG EAST Volleyball Annual Awards Announced
Xavier’s Abbey Bessler name Player of the Year; Seton Hall’s Tessa Fournier repeats as Libero of the Year and Creighton’s Jaali Winters named Freshman of the Year, Kirsten Bernthal Booth and Co. named Coaching Staff of the Year.
NEW YORK – The BIG EAST Conference announced its annual all-conference and major award winners on Tuesday, preceding the BIG EAST Volleyball Championship, which will take place Nov. 27-28 in Omaha, Neb., home of regular season title winner Creighton. Headlining the league’s major awards were Xavier outside hitter Abbey Bessler, who was voted BIG EAST Player of the Year, Seton Hall junior Tessa Fournier, who repeats as Libero of the Year, Creighton outside hitter Jaali Winters, voted the BIG EAST Freshman of the Year and Coaching Staff of the Year Creighton, led by Kirsten Bernthal Booth. Winters was a unanimous selection by the league’s head coaches for Freshman of the Year.
Eight of the 12 All-BIG EAST First Team performers will be competing in the BIG EAST Championship that starts Friday with the semifinals at D.J. Sokol Arena. All four BIG EAST Championship teams are represented on the All-BIG EAST First Team. Seven of the league’s 10 teams are represented on the all-conference teams.
Creighton, the league’s regular season champion placed three on the All-BIG EAST First Team and one on the second team. Villanova, Xavier and Marquette each had two student-athletes on the First Team. The Wildcats and Musketeers also placed a player on the second team. St. John’s, Seton Hall and Butler each had one player on the first team and one on the second team.
Bessler, an all-BIG EAST First Team honoree for the past three seasons was twice named BIG EAST Player of the and appeared on the BIG EAST Weekly honor roll six times. She ranked third in the conference in points (4.59 points/set) during BIG EAST play. The Hebron, Ky., native also ranks third in kills (4.11 kill/set) and eighth in digs (3.50 digs/set). Bessler is the first Xavier student-athlete to be voted BIG EAST Player of the Year. The Hebron, Ky. native has 16 double-doubles on the year and has recorded 20 or more kills in match six times. She broke the Xavier school record for kills in a match with 33 against St. John’s on Sept. 26.
Fournier repeats as Libero of the Year, as Seton Hall boasts the positional honor for the fourth-straight season. Pirate Alyssa Warren was voted Libero of the Year in 2012 and 2013. Fournier had another dominant defensive season, leading the BIG EAST in both digs (583) and digs per set (5.16). In conference games only, she was even more impressive with a digs per set average of 5.57. Fournier’s 583 digs this season is the fifth-highest single-season total in Seton Hall history. This season, she also moved into third place on the Pirates’ career digs list with 1,605, trailing only her libero predecessor Warren (2,381) and assistant coach Allie Matters (1,945).
Winters was a unanimous selection as BIG EAST Freshman of the Year and First Team All-BIG EAST after a remarkable debut season. The Ankeny, Iowa native leads Creighton in kills (454), kills per set (3.98), double-doubles (14), points (498.0) and points per set (4.37). Winters had double-figure kills in all but one conference match this season, and was named BIG EAST Freshman of the Week six times this fall.
Booth and the Creighton staff earned their first-ever BIG EAST Coaching Staff of the Year honor, leading Creighton to its second-straight BIG EAST regular season title. Booth led CU to its third regular-season conference title in the last four years, as Creighton's 17-1 record won the league by three full games. The Bluejays have overcome a 1-4 start to win 22 of its last 26 matches despite injuries and illness that have had caused seven different women to miss at least one match this fall. Booth has successfully integrated one of the nation's top recruiting classes into the line-up of the defending BIG EAST champions, while using four different starting setters and 12 different starting line-ups during the fall. The all-time winningest coach in Creighton Volleyball history, Booth owns a 258-145 record on the Bluejay sideline. Booth is assisted by Tom Mendoza, Angie Oxley Behrens and Kyle South.
On the All-BIG EAST First Team were many familiar names. Four of the honorees are repeats from last year, Bessler, Fournier, Meghan Niemann, a middle hitter from Marquette and Karin Palgutova, an outside hitter from St. John’s. Bessler, Niemann and Palgutova also earned first team accolades in 2013. Palgutova earned All-BIG EAST First Team for all four of her years on the Red Storm, becoming the fourth player in BIG EAST history and first since Louisville’s Lola Arslanbekova (2009-12) to be named to the All-BIG EAST First team four-consecutive times. Cincinnati’s Jessie Nevitt (2005-08) and South Florida’s Marcela Gurgel (2006-09) were the other two to accomplish the feat.
The All-BIG EAST First Team also boasts the talents of two freshmen as Winters an Marquette’s Taylor Louis made the cut. Louis was BIG EAST Freshman of the week five times this fall, second to Winters who earned the honor six times. Louis led the conference in kills per set (4.86) and points per set (5.27) and was nationally ranked No. 2 in these statistical categories for much of the season.
Also joining these six players on the All-BIG EAST First Team were Maggie Baumert, a senior setter from Creighton, Allie Loitz, a sophomore outside hitter from Villanova, Kristen Massa, a sophomore outside hitter from Xavier, Emma Pettit, a senior setter from Villanova, Lauren Smith a junior middle blocker from Creighton and Mary Striedl, a senior right side hitter from Butler.
Bessler, Loitz, Louis and Winters were unanimous selections to the All-BIG EAST First Team. Baumert, Palgutova and Pettit were unanimous All-BIG EAST selections.
On the All-BIG EAST Second Team was Jess Bird from Creighton, St. John’s Julia Cast, Amanda Hansen from Seton Hall, Anna Logan from Butler, Xavier’s Sofia Peterson and Villanova’s Gabby Pethokoukis.
Coaches were not allowed to vote from their own players. The Volleyball All-BIG EAST teams are non-positional.
2015 Volleyball All-BIG EAST Team and Major Awards
BIG EAST Player of the Year
Abbey Bessler, Xavier, Jr., OH
BIG EAST Libero of the Year
Tessa Fournier, Seton Hall, Jr., L #
BIG EAST Freshman of the Year
Jaali Winters, Creighton, Fr., OH *
BIG EAST Coaching Staff of the Year
Creighton (Head Coach Kirsten Bernthal Booth)
All-BIG EAST First Team
Maggie Baumert, Creighton Sr., S ^
Abbey Bessler, Xavier, Jr., OH ^^
Tessa Fournier, Seton Hall, Jr., L
Allie Loitz, Villanova, So., OH ^^
Taylor Louis, Marquette, Fr., OH ^^
Kristen Massa, Xavier, So., OH
Meghan Niemann, Marquette, RS-Jr., MH
Karin Palgutova, St. John’s, Sr., OH ^
Emma Pettit, Villanova, Sr., S ^
Lauren Smith, Creighton, Jr., MB
Mary Striedl, Butler, Sr., RS
Jaali Winters, Creighton, Fr., OH ^^
All-BIG EAST Second Team
Jess Bird, Creighton, Jr., OH
Julia Cast, St. John’s, So., MB/RS
Amanda Hansen, Seton Hall, Sr., MB
Anna Logan, Butler, Fr., OH
Sofia Peterson, Xavier, RS-Jr., RS
Gabby Pethokoukis, Villanova, RS-Jr., MB
# - 2014 BIG EAST Libero of the Year
* - denotes a unanimous selection
^^ - denotes a unanimous selection to the All-BIG EAST First Team
^ - denotes a unanimous All-BIG EAST selection