BIG EAST Volleyball boasts three candidates for Senior CLASS Award
OVERLAND PARK, Kan. – Creighton's Taryn Kloth and Jaali Winters, along with Seton Hall's Abby Thelen are among 30 student-athletes who excel both on and off the court that were selected today as candidates for the 2018 Senior CLASS Award
® in collegiate volleyball. Kloth and Winters make Creighton one of two teams (Illinois) with multiple candidates.
To be eligible for the award, a student-athlete must be classified as an NCAA Division I senior and have notable achievements in four areas of excellence: community, classroom, character and competition.
An acronym for
Celebrating Loyalty and Achievement for Staying in School®, the Senior CLASS Award focuses on the total student-athlete and encourages students to use their platform in athletics to make a positive impact as leaders in their communities.
The 30 candidates will be narrowed to 10 finalists midway through the regular season, and those 10 names will be placed on the official ballot. Ballots will be distributed through a nationwide voting system to media, coaches and fans, who will select one candidate who best exemplifies excellence in the four Cs of community, classroom, character and competition. The Senior CLASS Award winner will be announced during the 2018 NCAA Division I Women's Volleyball Championship in December.
Of the 30 candidates, 13 have grade-point averages of 3.5 or higher and 27 have received academic all-conference honors. Fifteen are returning American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) All-Americans, and 10 are members of teams ranked in the AVCA Top 25 Coaches Poll. Outside of academics and athletics, all candidates have been consistently involved in community service on their campus or in their communities.
Kloth is a two-time All-BIG EAST performer and having her best season to date. The Sioux Falls, S.D., native leads the BIG EAST with 257 kills, a figure that is the most in Creighton history after 16 matches. She was named the Most Valuable Player of the 2017 BIG EAST Tournament, and ranks eighth in school history in career kills. Kloth was named an All-American in 2016, and spent 11 days this May with the U.S. Collegiate National Team in China. Kloth owns five matches this season with 20 or more kills, including a career-best 26 against Nebraska earlier this season.
Winters is a three-time All-BIG EAST honoree and three-time All-American. The Ankeny, Iowa, product sits just 16 kills away from Creighton's career record (1,622), which would be the 77th school record of her magnificent career. Winters was named 2016 BIG EAST Tournament MVP, named a 2017 CoSIDA Academic All-American, was recognized as Creighton's Carl M. Reinert, S.J., Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year in 2017-18, and in 2015-16 was named CU's Female Athlete of the Year. Winters spent two weeks in the summer of 2017 with the U.S. Collegiate National Team in Croatia.
Both Kloth and Winters are also Dean's List students in the classroom who have earned three BIG EAST All-Academic Team plaudits and will graduate in December in just seven semesters.
Kloth and Winters are the latest in a long line of Creighton Volleyball student-athletes to make the Senior CLASS cut in recent seasons, as Lydia Dimke was a candidate in 2017. Jess Bird and Lauren Smith were candidates in 2016, with Smith ending the fall as a Senior CLASS All-American. Other past volleyball candidates include Melanie Jereb in 2015, Kelli Browning in 2014 and Megan Bober in 2012.
This season, Thelen was named to the 2018 Preseason All-BIG EAST Team and is again leading the Pirates, and ranks third in the BIG EAST Conference with 232 kills and 3.62 kills per set. She has tallied at least 15 kills in a single match a team-best six times and was named to the Blue & White Classic and Seton Hall Classic All-Tournament Teams. Career-wise, only five players in Seton Hall history have recorded more kills, and only four have had more attacks.
A Business Finance major, Thelen is a two-time Academic All-BIG EAST selection and a two-time Seton Hall Dean's List member. She was Seton Hall's candidate last year for a BIG EAST Scholar-Athlete Excellence Award in 2017. A team leader, she is highly active on campus and in the local community often participating in the "Reading with the Pirates" program and collecting food for needy families during Seton Hall's "Thanksgiving Basket Drive." Thelen is also a volleyball clinic coach, and also aids in a "Christmas Gift Donation" in which, along with family members, she adopts a family for Christmas.
For more information on all the candidates, visit
seniorCLASSaward.com.
Volleyball Candidates
| Kamalani Akeo, Pittsburgh |
Courtney Pence, Illinois State |
| Tami Alade, Stanford |
Jordan Poulter, Illinois |
| Rachel Anderson, Western Kentucky |
Colleen Reilly, Wofford |
| Ali Bastianelli, Illinois |
Michela Rucli, Hofstra |
| Lauren Bruns, Dayton |
Jess Schaben, Iowa State |
| Santita Ebangwese, Syracuse |
Samantha Seliger-Swenson, Minnesota |
| Gabrielle Eyl, Northeastern |
Carly Skjodt, Michigan |
| Mikaela Foecke, Nebraska |
Alexa Smith, Colorado |
| Cara Guthrie, UNC Asheville |
Kirstyn Sperry, Bryant |
| Erica Haslag, Bradley |
Haley Templeton, Miami |
| Taryn Kloth, Creighton |
Abby Thelen, Seton Hall |
| Haley Libs, Northern Kentucky |
Jaila Tolbert, Virginia Tech |
| AJ Lux, East Tennessee State |
Erica Treiber, Tennessee |
| Patricia Mattingly, Navy |
Jaali Winters, Creighton |
| Alyssa Munlyn, Missouri |
Karley York, North Texas |
ABOUT THE AWARD
An acronym for C
elebrating Loyalty and Achievement for Staying in School, the
Senior CLASS Award honors the attributes of senior student-athletes in four areas: community, classroom, character and competition. The award program is designed exclusively for college seniors who are utilizing their complete athletic eligibility, remaining committed to their university and pursuing the many rewards a senior season can bring. Premier Sports Management manages the award.