AVCA Men's National Player of The Year Awards
Division I-II Player of the Year | Division III Player of the Year | NAIA Player of the Year
AVCA Division I-II Men's National Player of the Year
Tony Ciarelli - University of Southern California
LEXINGTON, Ky. (May 2, 2012) - The American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) is pleased to announce that University of Southern California outside hitter Tony Ciarelli has been named the 2012 AVCA Men's Division I-II National Player of the Year.
The presentation was made at the NCAA Men's Volleyball Championship Banquet on the campus of the University of Southern California. The banquet was held in conjunction with the NCAA Men's Volleyball Championship, to be played May 3 and 5 at the Galen Center on USC's campus.
Ciarelli, a native of Huntington Beach, Calif., played a crucial role in leading USC to a 23-5 record, the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) regular season title with an 18-4 league mark, and the No. 2 seed heading into this weekend's NCAA Men's Volleyball Championship Semifinals. They will take on the MIVA Champion and No. 3 seed Lewis University.
The senior co-captain currently leads the country in aces averaging 0.63 per set and 59 overall. He is in the top-5 both nationally and in the MPSF Conference with 4.05 kills per set and is currently 16th in the country in hitting percentage (.315). Ciarelli took charge despite a supposed "rebuilding year" the Trojans were expected to have entering the season, leading the team in kills with 381. The next highest kill total comes from Tanner Jansen with 193.
A four-year starter who recently was named the MPSF Player of the Year, Ciarelli was also a First-Team AVCA All-American in 2012 and a Second-Team honoree the previous two years. For his career, he has accumulated 1,605 kills, 661 digs and 282 blocks. His 164 career aces and 59 aces in 2012 are USC rally scoring records.
Ciarelli becomes the fourth Trojan and the second consecutive player to be named AVCA National Player of the Year, as Brian Ivie took home the inaugural award following the 1991 season, Donald Suxho earned the honor in 2000 and Murphy Troy won it a year ago.
2012 AVCA Men's Division III National Player of the Year
Randy Hansen - Carthage College
LEXINGTON, Ky. (April 26, 2011) - The American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) announced this evening that Carthage College senior outside hitter Randy Hansen was named the 2012 AVCA Men's Division III National Player of the Year.
The presentation was made at the NCAA Division III Men's Volleyball Championship Banquet in Springfield, Mass. The banquet was held in conjunction with the NCAA Division III Men's Volleyball Championship, to be played April 27-29 on the campus of Springfield College.
It wasn't always smooth sailing for Hansen and his fellow seniors. In their freshman year in 2005, the Red Men went 8-25, but have improved every year since then to get to their 27-5 record in 2012. Since Hansen joined the program, they have gone 79-53 as a team and 71-28 in the final three years.
Carthage has dominated the DIII men's game never falling out of the top-3 in the AVCA Men's Coaches Poll and holding the No. 1 seed for seven weeks. Under the tutelage of Head Coach L.J. Marx, Hansen and four All-American teammates will look to capture the inaugural NCAA Men's Division III National Championship.
He ranks second in the nation averaging 4.17 kills per set and is in the top-10 in hitting percentage with .361. The CVC All-West Division recipient was twice named a Sports Imports/AVCA Player of the Week and CVC Player of the Week. The Illinois native has posted 450 kills on the year to go along with 245 digs and 65 blocks.
Hansen was named an AVCA Men's Division III First-Team All-American earlier this week, joining only four others to be repeat recipients. In 2011 he was a Second-Team All-American selection.
In the nine-year history of the AVCA Men's Division III National Player of the Year award, Hansen becomes the first athlete from Carthage to be heralded with the prestigious honor. He also joins Matt Werle, Ricky Ziegler and Kenny Eiser, all from Juniata, Andrew Cranford from Stevens, Bryan Shires from UC Santa Cruz, Chris Schmidt from NYU and Springfield's Cal Palumbo and AJ Nally as the only recipients of the award.
AVCA Division III Men's National Player of the Year
2012: Randy Hansen, Carthage College
2011 Cal Palumbo, Springfield College
2010 AJ Nally, Springfield College
2009 Andrew Cranford, Stevens Institute of Technology
2008 Bryan Shires, UC Santa Cruz
2007 Matt Werle, Juniata College
2006 Chris Schmidt, New York University
2005 Ricky Ziegler, Juniata College
2004 Kenny Eiser, Juniata College
2012 AVCA NAIA Men's National Player of the Year
Dan Dowjotas - St. Ambrose University
LEXINGTON, Ky. (April 26, 2012) - The American Volleyball Coaches Association is pleased to announce outside hitter Dan Dowjotas of St, Ambrose University as the 2012 NAIA Men's National Player of the Year.
The senior All-American had a tremendous year leading the Bees to a 33-win season, MAMVIC regular season and conference tournament championships and a second straight appearance in the national championship match. Their win total was the most in the country, with Park University and Missouri Baptist College ranking second with 12 fewer victories. A large part of that was the dominant force Dowjotas was all season long. He ended the season ranked third in the nation with 4.0 kills per set and in the top-10 with a .337 hitting percentage. The Illinois native didn't just perform on the offensive end, finishing second on the team with 1.50 digs per set and accumulating just 17 reception errors all season.
For his outstanding efforts in the NAIA Men's Volleyball National Invitational Tournament, the senior was named to the All-Tournament Team. His season accolades don't end there as he was also named the MAMVIC East Division Player of the Year and First-Team All-Conference. On March 26th, Dowjotas was named the NAIA Men's Volleyball Player of the Week.
As a team, SAU topped the nation in hitting percentage (.298), kills per set (12.9), assists per set (12.2) and total service aces (178).
During his time with the Bees program, St. Ambrose put together a 108-32 record. In that four-year span, Dowjotas has compiled career totals of 1,652 kills, 729 digs and 229 blocks.