Friday, November 16, 2018

PORTLAND, Ore. – A trio of GNAC volleyball players, all of which were all-conference performers, have been singled out for excellence on the court and in the classroom with selection to the Google Cloud/CoSIDA Division II Academic All-District 8 Volleyball Team.

Western Washington senior outside hitter Abby Phelps and senior middle blocker Michaela Hall, both First Team All-GNAC selections, were among eight players named to the Academic All-District Team. The two Vikings are joined by Western Oregon junior middle blocker Morgan Haskett, who was an All-GNAC Honorable Mention.

The team, nominated by and voted upon by members of the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA), was announced on Nov. 15.

Phelps, who has a 3.56 cumulative grade point average as an elementary education major, helped lead Western Washington to its second straight GNAC championship, a 20-0 conference record and the No. 1 seed in the NCAA Division II West Regional Championships. The two-time GNAC Player of the Year led the led in both kills and points, ranking 27th in Division II with 4.42 points per set and 28th with 3.91 kills per set. Phelps finished the regular season with 23 double-doubles (kills and digs) and had a season-high of 27 kills at Simon Fraser on Sept. 25.

Hall, who has a 3.76 GPA as a kinesiology major, finished the regular season ranked third in the GNAC and 32nd in Division II with a .364 hitting percentage while also ranking sixth in the conference with 1.14 blocks per set. She averaged 2.74 kills per set, topped by a 15-kill performance against Central Washington on Sept. 15. Hall posted a high of seven blocks against Concordia on Oct. 4.

Haskett, who has a 3.96 GPA as a psychology major, finished 13th in the GNAC with a .252 hitting percentage while averaging 1.22 kills and 0.99 blocks per set. She finished with a season-high of eight kills on three different occasions, most recently against Seattle Pacific on Oct. 13. Haskett had her blocking season-high with eight against Central Washington on Sept. 20.

Nominated by and voted upon by members of the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA), the Google Cloud Academic and All-America programs recognize student-athletes who demonstrate excellence both on the field and in the classroom. Nominees must be of sophomore standing or higher, be a starter or important reserve on their team and carry a cumulative grade point average of 3.30 or greater.

The three will now advance to the ballot for the Google Cloud Division II Academic All-America Team, which will be announced on Tues., Dec. 11.