Thursday, November 17, 2022

PORTLAND, Ore. – After a season where she and her Alaska Anchorage teammates dominated the conference, Seawolves’ senior right-side hitter Eve Stephens has been named the Division II Conference Commissioners Association West Region Volleyball Player of the Year and leads five GNAC selections to the D2CCA All-West Region Team.

Stephens is just the second Alaska Anchorage player to have been named the D2CCA Player of the Year, joining Morgan Hooe, who earned the honor in 2016.

Stephens leads the conference with 4.79 kills and 5.83 points per set. She ranks second in the conference with 0.53 aces per set and is fourth with a .359 hitting percentage. Among Division II players, Stephens ranks second in points per set, third in kills per set, 30th in aces per set and 31st with 10.68 attacks per set.

A seven-time GNAC Player of the Week in 2022 (six offensive awards, one defensive award), Stephens was also named the AVCA Division II Player of the Week twice. In the course of the season, Stephens set the GNAC all-time record with 1,906 kills and 2,268 points and counting. Stephens is a three-time D2CCA All-West Region selection, earning first-team honors in 2019 and second-team honors in 2021.

Stephens was joined on the first team by UAA senior setter Ellen Floyd. The conference also had both first-team middle blockers in Central Washington sophomore Emma Daoud-Hebert and Western Washington senior Chloe Roetcisoender. Vikings senior outside hitter Calley Heilborn was elected to the second team for the second time in her career. All five players were First Team All-GNAC selections.

Floyd enters the West Regional ranked third in the conference with 10.06 assists per set and ranks fifth with 0.45 aces per set. Floyd is the conference’s all-time leader in aces with 212 and counting.

Heilborn enters the West Regional ranked fifth in the GNAC with 3.18 kills per set and 10th with 3.36 digs per set. Roetcisoender leads the conference and is 19th in Division II with her .383 hitting percentage and sits third among Division II players with 1.32 blocks per set while also averaging 2.59 kills per set.

Daoud-Hebert enters the regional as the Division II leader with 1.55 blocks per set and 155 total blocks while also averaging 2.59 kills per set.

The four first-team selections are now eligible to be named to the D2CCA Volleyball All-America Team, which will be announced on November 30.