Four Honored With All-Conference Selections
11/20/2019 3:15:00 PM | Women's Volleyball
Setter Kaliegh Skopal was named to the second team while Alysha Johnson picked up all-freshman honors. North Texas tied with Florida Atlantic for the third-most players honored with four, Western Kentucky picked up five honorees while Rice had six. North Texas was one off its mark of five players honored which was set in the past two seasons.
An offensive powerhouse, Valerian was selected to the C-USA All-Conference First Team for the second season in a row. She was a preseason all-conference selection. Valerian leads the team in kills with 427 and digs with 314, averaging 3.11 digs per set. She has appeared in all 101 sets so far this season. She moved into 6th all-time in career kills in program history this season.
Valerian finished the regular season with the second most kills in C-USA, and the second best kill per set rate at 4.24. She was also named to the All-Academic team this season.
After picking up an all-freshman nod last season, Robinson continued her growth, picking up the first team nod as a sophomore. She has the second most kills for the team with 238 and is averaging 3.05 kills per set in 78 sets played. She has been strong at the net with 55 total blocks in the regular season, good for second best on the squad. Her hitting percentage jumped from .212 in her freshman season to .235 this year, with her total number of attacks rising as well.
Despite not playing since October 27, Skopal was named to the all-conference second team. Before being sidelined for the remainder of the season, she was battling for the tite of top setter in C-USA. Skopal is one of only two players to win the Conference USA Setter of the Week award at least three times this season. Despite missing the last five games of the C-USA schedule, she finished with the top assists per set mark in C-USA at 12.58. Skopal finished the regular season with 876 assists.
After being named the Freshman of the Week for the week of November 4, Johnson picked up all-freshman honors. She's been a strong attacker and blocker in her first year in Denton, and leads the team in hitting percentage at the end of the regular season with .340. She is also by far and away the team block leader with 85 total. She played in 98 sets in the regular season, the most by any freshman on the team this season.
North Texas faces off with #7 UTSA in the Conference USA Volleyball Championships, hosted by Rice, at 7 p.m. on Friday. The match will be available on ESPN+.
All-Conference First Team
Yumi Garcia, Charlotte
Massiel Matos, Florida Atlantic
Ciara Debell, Marshall
Rhett Robinson, North Texas
Valerie Valerian, North Texas
Nicole Lennon, Rice
Anota Adekunle, Rice
Kara Teal, UTSA
Lauren Matthews, WKU
Nadia Dieudonne, WKU
Paige Briggs, WKU
All-Conference Second Team
Sydney Rowan, Charlotte
Sigourney Kame, Florida Atlantic
Zuri Smith, Florida Atlantic
Sydney Nemtuda, Florida Atlantic
Dora Peonia, Middle Tennessee
Kaliegh Skopal, North Texas
Lee Ann Cunningham, Rice
Adria Martinez, Rice
Grace Morgan, Rice
Cheyenne Jones, UTEP
Sophia Cerino, WKU
All-Freshman Team
Kayla Henley, Middle Tennessee
Alysha Johnson, North Texas
Ellie Bichelmeyer, Rice
Fernanda Maida, UAB
Rachel Morse, UAB
Bianca Ejesieme, UTSA
Paige Briggs, WKU
