ALBANY, N.Y. ? For the third-straight season, Albany’s Blair Buchanan (Muncie, Ind./Delta) stole the show at the conference’s volleyball postseason awards banquet as the senior was once again tabbed the America East Player of the Year and Setter of the Year. Buchanan is the only player in NCAA history to win both awards three times.
Complete 2006 America East Volleyball Awards Breakdown
Albany head coach Kelly Sheffield was also honored as the America East Coach of the Year, while UMBC’s Ashley Oscars (Bakersfield, Calif./Liberty) garnered America East Rookie of the Year accolades. All voting was conducting by the conference’s coaches.
The senior Buchanan was the catalyst of the league’s most-efficient offense that hit .242 on the season. Buchanan ranks second in the conference in assists (11.25 apg) and boasts 13 double-doubles on the season. In addition to being the first Division I player to win both Player of the Year and Setter of the Year three times, she is also the 13th player in NCAA history to earn Player of the Year accolades three times.
After guiding the Great Danes to their third-straight regular-season title, Sheffield has become just the third coach in league history to earn Coach of the Year honors twice as he also won the award in 2004. His squad will host the upcoming four-team America East Championship on November 18-19 as they are in search of their second league title in three years.
Oscars earned a conference-best seven Rookie of the Week awards throughout the 2006 campaign enroute to becoming the second Retriever in as many seasons to be honored as the league’s top freshman. Oscars ranks fourth in America East in kills (4.04 kpg) and sixth in points (4.48 ppg), while leading the Retrievers to their first-ever America East Championship appearance.
Buchanan is joined on the first team by a trio of Great Danes ? Ashley Crenshaw (Birmingham, Ala./Hoover), Ashley DeNeal (Muncie, Ind./Delta) and Shelby Goldman (Whitby, Ontario/Anderson Collegiate). Binghamton’s Megan Hoag (Brunswick, Ohio /Padua Franciscan), Jacki Kane (Centennial, Colo./Grandview) and Ashley Meffert (Louisville, Ky./Fern Creek), UMBC’s Oscars and Sarah Ball (Winnipeg , Canada/Sisler), New Hampshire’s Emmy Blouin (St. Albert, Alberta (Canada)/Paul Kane) and Sarah Rehn (Oceanside, Calif./Vista) and Stony Brook’s Morgan Sweany (Mission Viejo, Calif./Capistrano Valley) were also selected to the first team.
Kamisha Kellam (Forestville, Md./Bishop McNamara) and Hillary White (Aberdeen, S.D./Aberdeen) of Albany and Binghamton’s Kathleen Schauer (Littleton, Colo./Heritage) are featured on the second team, along with Jennifer Monroy (Rahway, N.J./Union Catholic) of Hartford, Maine’s Shelly Seipp (Spokane, Wash./John R. Rogers), Kira Giles (Winnipeg, Canada/Glenlawn) and Jennifer Wylie (Timonium, Md./Dulaney/NYU) of UMBC, New Hampshire’s Kate Uitti (Pickney, Mich./Pickney) and Stony Brook’s Kaitlyn Deutsch (St. Louis, Mo./Southern Mississippi), Gulce Nazli Dikecligil (Istanbul, Turkey/St. Benoit French Senerbahce), Claire Lindner (Northport, N.Y./Northport) and Amy Oleksiej (Coram, N.Y./Longwood).
Oscars, Giles and Uitti are joined on the all-rookie squad by three more Wildcats ? Kirsten Bates (Calgary, Alberta/Bishop Carroll) Lindsay Fogarty (Pleasanton, Calif./Amador Valley) and Alyse Lahti (Pepper Pike, Ohio/Orange). In all, a conference-record four Wildcats help make up the six-member rookie team, along with two rookies from UMBC.
Nineteen of the 24 all-conference selections will be in action at this weekend’s 2006 America East Volleyball Championship at University Gymnasium on the Albany campus. The top seed and host Great Danes get the tournament underway as they take on No. 4 Stony Brook in semifinal action on Saturday, November 18 at 3 p.m. The day’s second semifinal pits No. 2 Binghamton versus No. 3 UMBC. The semifinal-winners will then meet on Sunday, November 19 at 2 p.m. for the league title and conference’s automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament.