High Point Volleyball Claims 11 All-Big South Postseason Honors

HIGH POINT, N.C. – The High Point University volleyball team, which went undefeated in Big South action, combined for 11 All-Big South accolades, the league announced on Wednesday. Among those 11 honors, Abby Bottomley was named Freshman of the Year while senior Haley Barnes earned Scholar-Athlete of the Year and Tom Mendoza was tabbed as Coach of the Year.

The Panthers (23-6, 16-0) garnered three of the seven first-team selections as junior Molly Livingston, Barnes and Bottomley finished second through fourth, respectively, in the Player of the Year voting behind Radford’s repeat winner Maddie Palmer. Meanwhile, junior Katie Tylman picked up her first all-conference honor being named to the second team as junior Jordan Hefner earned Honorable Mention.

Joining Bottomley on the all-freshman squad, Katie Doering finished third in the Freshman of the Year voting won by her teammate.

Rounding out the awards, Barnes garnered all-academic team distinction for the second straight season en route to being picked as the Scholar-Athlete of the Year.

Overall, the Purple & White ran through the league slate with 12 sweeps – including all eight home matches – while dropping just four of 52 sets against conference foes.

AWARD WINNER CAPSULES
Molly Livingston | Junior | MB | First Team
Is a two-time All-Big South First Team selection … Led the conference hitting at a .397 clip – the second-highest percentage in the league since the NCAA moved to 25-point rally scoring in 2008 … Ranks 25th in the nation in hitting percentage and 71st in aces per set (0.38) … Is the only player in the conference with 300 kills and 100 blocks and has authored two of the three 300-100 seasons in HPU’s Division I era … Placed in the top-10 in the league in hitting percentage, kills per set, aces per set, blocks per set and points per set … Earned Big South Freshman of the Year and second team honors in 2015.

Haley Barnes | Senior | OH | First Team, All-Academic, Scholar-Athlete of the Year
Becomes a three-time All-Big South First Team choice after making the all-freshman team in 2014 … Joins Molly Barlow and Gabi Mirand as HPU’s third Big South Scholar-Athlete of the Year winner … Repeats as a member of the all-academic team … Became the fourth Division I Panther to eclipse 1,000 career kills and 1,000 career digs … Leads the Big South and is 10th nationally in aces per set (0.49) … Finished fifth in the conference in kills per set (3.22) and points per set (3.92) … Moved to second in HPU’s Division I kills rankings with 1,374 career kills … Was one of 30 candidates for the 2017 Senior CLASS Award … Owns a 3.711 GPA while majoring in Exercise Science.

Abby Bottomley | Freshman | L | First Team, All-Freshman, Freshman of the Year
Joins Livingston, Savannah Angel, Lindsay Pickens and Tracyann Pryce as HPU’s fifth Big South Freshman of the Year … The first freshman in HPU history to be named to the All-Big South First Team … Paced the conference and ranks 27th in America with 5.24 digs per set … Ranks fourth among freshmen in digs per set during the 2017 season … Needs 44 digs to break Julie Hershkowitz’s HPU single-season freshmen record … Is third in HPU’s D-I era in digs per set for a single season … Was a four-time Big South Defensive Player of the Week while claiming Freshman of the Week twice … posted 6.00 or more digs per set in eight matches this fall.

Katie Tylman | Junior | RS | Second Team
Earns her first all-conference selection … Ranked third in the Big South in attack percentage (.315) and was the only non-middle blocker in the top-seven … Was a two-time Big South Player of the Week on the fall … Tallied 2.38 kills and 0.61 blocks per frame … Went off for double-digit kills 12 times including two 20-kill outings … Placed second in the league in attack percentage in Big South play (.364) behind only Livingston.

Jordan Hefner | Junior | MB | Honorable Mention
Garnered her second all-conference accolade after being named All-Big South Second Team in 2016 … Ranked fifth in the league in attack percentage (.299) and 10th in blocks per set (0.83) … Is three blocks away from becoming the fifth D-I Panther to amass 300 career total blocks … Sits at fourth on the team in kills per set (1.84) and second in blocks per set (0.83).

Katie Doering | Freshman | RS | All-Freshman
Joins Bottomley as the third pair of HPU freshmen on the league’s all-freshman team … Placed sixth on the team with 1.31 kills per set and fourth with 0.48 blocks per frame … Came on during Big South play hitting .269 against league foes, which was the 10th best mark during the 16-match conference season … Finished the season with her first double-digit kill outing of the year with 10 at Radford on Nov. 11.

Tom Mendoza | Coach of the Year
Led HPU to the first-ever 16-0 regular season Big South campaign and the 11th undefeated season in the league history … Owns a 27-5 mark against conference foes in two regular seasons at High Point … Coached High Point to a No. 44 ranking in the RPI this week as the 2017 squad has the program’s seven highest rankings in program history … Only Winthrop’s Joel McCartney won more matches in his first two seasons at a Big South program than Mendoza’s 46 by winning 50 in 2001-02.

The Purple & White head to Radford this weekend to take on the winner of No. 4 UNC Asheville and No. 5 Liberty on Saturday at 4:30 p.m. With a win, the Panthers would advance to Sunday’s championship game with a first serve at 4:00 p.m.

2017 Big South Conference Volleyball Award Winners
First-Team All-Conference

Maddie Palmer, OH, Sr., Radford
Molly Livingston, MB, Jr, High Point
Haley Barnes, OH, Sr., High Point
Abby Bottomley, LIB, High Point
Cara Guthrie, OH, Jr., UNC Asheville
Anna Gragg, MB, Soph., Liberty
Allena Heath, OH, Soph., Campbell

Second-Team All-Conference
Haley Kleespies, S, Jr., Radford
Casey Goodwin, OH, Soph., Liberty
Katie Tylman, RS, Jr., High Point
Summer Schuitema, S, Sr., Campbell
Stephanie Neast, OPP, Soph., Radford
Keaupono Fey, MB, Sr., Winthrop
Kayla Schanback, LIB, Sr., Campbell

Honorable Mention All-Conference
Jessica Stocking, OH, Jr., Campbell
Phoebe Wu, OH, Jr., Winthrop
Jordan Hefner, MB, Jr., High Point
Valerie Gonzalez, OH, Jr., Radford
Siani Yamaguchi, S, Soph., Winthrop

All-Freshman Team
Abby Bottomley, LIB, High Point
Amaya Williams, S, Liberty
Katie Doering, RS, High Point
Ava Venema, MB, UNC Asheville
Hannah Schneggenburger, MB, Campbell
Kalysia Bates, MB, Charleston Southern
Allie Wright, MH, Presbyterian College

All-Academic Team
Summer Schuitema, S, Sr., Campbell
Kylie Klein, MB, Sr., Charleston Southern
Amanda Sahm, S, Jr., Gardner-Webb
Haley Barnes, OH, Sr., High Point
Anna Willey, S, Gr., Liberty
Ashton Stewart, MB, Sr., Presbyterian
Kaylor Nash, DS/L, Sr., Radford
Carter Kennedy, S, Soph., UNC Asheville
Carlie Skelton, DS, Jr., Winthrop

Player of the Year
Maddie Palmer, OH, Sr., Radford

Freshman of the Year
Abby Bottomley, LIB, High Point

Coach of the Year
Tom Mendoza, High Point

Scholar-Athlete of the Year
Haley Barnes, OH, Sr., High Point