NEW ORLEANS — Claudia Haywood and Franziska Pirkl received more volleyball honors late Saturday when the Xavier University of Louisiana seniors earned honorable mention on the 2015 All-Louisiana team.
Haywood, a 5-foot-11 middle blocker from Memphis, Tenn., and a graduate of Cordova High School, also received a vote for Player of the Year and finished third in balloting for that award. She led the Gulf Coast Athletic Conference this year with a .292 hitting percentage. She was first-team All-GCAC her final two seasons, and she was GCAC Tournament MVP this year and in 2013. Haywood finished her career with a .287 hitting percentage, 756 kills and 207 blocks, all of which rank among the top four in XU history.
Pirkl, a 5-9 setter from Munich, Germany, and a graduate of Theodolinden Gymnasium, led the GCAC this year with 8.97 assists per set. She was first-team All-GCAC four times, the 2015 GCAC Setter of the Year and a two-time Daktronics-NAIA Scholar Athlete. Her 3,293 career assists are an XU record. Pirkl also produced 227 kills, 116 aces, 754 digs and 103 blocks in her career — those latter three numbers rank in XU's top five.
For the third straight year, XU's Hannah Lawing was runner-up for Coach of the Year. Lawing received three votes, and Millicent Van Norden of the University of New Orleans received six. Receiving a vote for Libero of the Year and placing third was XU seniorDarian Harris.
A Louisiana Sports Writers Association panel of sports publicists selected the All-Louisiana team, which consists of student-athletes from NCAA Division I and NAIA members.
Xavier's Gold Nuggets were 19-8 this year, and for the fifth consecutive season they won GCAC regular-season and tournament championships and qualified for the NAIA National Championship.
| 2015 All-Louisiana Women's Volleyball Team | ||
| FIRST TEAM Malina Sanchez, senior, McNeese State Tea Juric, junior, Tulane Kelly Graham, senior, McNeese State Landry Bullock, junior, Southeastern Louisiana Glynna Johnson, senior, Northwestern State Blessing Dunn, freshman, New Orleans Libero: Diamond Williams, junior, Southern SECOND TEAM Kaci Eaton, junior, Nicholls State Gina Tillis, sophomore, LSU Sarah Ray, sophomore, Tulane Taylor Zaeske, junior, Louisiana-Monroe Hope Pawlik, junior, Louisiana-Monroe Celeste Ramirez, senior, New Orleans Libero: Bridget Justis, junior, McNeese State PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Malina Sanchez, McNeese State Voting: Sanchez 7, Juric 3, Claudia Haywood (Xavier) 1 LIBERO OF THE YEAR: Diamond Williams, Southern Voting: Williams 6, Justis 2, Darian Harris (Xavier) 1, Haley Smith (LSU) 1 NEWCOMER OF THE YEAR: Keke Irby, New Orleans Voting: Irby 8, Madi Odom (Southeastern Louisiana) 3 FRESHMAN OF THE YEAR: Blessing Dunn, New Orleans Voting: Dunn 8, Lisa Mordell (Tulane) 3 COACH OF THE YEAR: Millicent Van Norden, New Orleans Voting: Van Norden 6, Hannah Lawing (Xavier) 3, Patrick Hiltz (Louisiana-Monroe) 1, Jim Smoot (Southeastern Louisiana) 1 HONORABLE MENTION Claudia Haywood, senior, Xavier; Amanda Kunz, senior, Northwestern State; Madi Odom, junior, Southeastern Louisiana; Marta Monne, sophomore, Louisiana Tech; Eva Allen, senior, Loyola; Keke Irby, junior, New Orleans; Franziska Pirkl, senior, Xavier Ed Cassiere, Sports Information Director XULAgold.com XAVIER UNIVERSITY OF LOUISIANA twitter.com/xulagold www.facebook.com/xulagold | ||
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