Season Filled with Many Awards

 Our 2021 season concluded with many individuals earning some really impressive awards.  Now, we always like to recognize the Team effort whenever someone on that team is awarded an individual honor because we know they're enter-twined, but these individuals are very deserving of these nice awards.  We want to recognize them, while also saying we know among ourselves that "It's ALL about the TEAM!"

 

This year, we had two people who won MAJOR recognition:  Maggie Wise getting tabbed as an All-American for the FIRST time in MCVB history!  And, Gabbie O'Toole became the 4th overall player to be named NESCAC Rookie of the Year in MCVB history!  Here are the rest of the NESCAC Awards:

First Team All-NESCAC--Maggie Wise

2nd Team All-NESCAC--Corley Doyle, Gabbie O'Toole, and Kelly Ferrero.

And, there’s a very special NESCAC award where one member of each NESCAC team is honored on the NESCAC ALL-Sportsmanship Team, and our team selected Ali Wheeler!!

Next, we had other National AVCA Awards, in addition to Maggie's record setting All-American honor!  Both Corley Doyle and Gabbie O'Toole were Honorable Mention All-Americans, joining a small handful of previous Panthers with this special honor.

We also had some All-Region Honors, also through the AVCA, but broken down into our specific Region.  Not only was Gabbie the NESCAC Rookie of the Year, but she was also tabbed the Freshman of the Year for Region I (out of 10 regions across the country), and that's the first time in MCVB History that that's happened also.  Here's a run-down of the All-Region Awards for Region I:

Freshman of the Year--Gabbie O'Toole

All-Region--Maggie Wise and Corley Doyle

All-Region Honorable Mention--Kelly Ferrero

Coach of the Year--Sarah Raunecker

Now, for Coach of the Year honors, it's definitely all about the success of the team, as it should be, so it's always nice to be recognized for the efforts of the Team. 

The NEWVA awards are very similar, but are chosen among ALL teams in New England, whereas the Region I awards split New England into at least two different regions.  Those awards are as follows:

NEWVA All Region 1st Team, & Senior Classic—Maggie Wise

NEWVA All Region 2nd Team, & Senior Classic—Corley Doyle

NEWVA All Region 3rd Team, & All-Rookie Team--Gabbie O'Toole

NEWVA Senior Classic—Jane Nelson

I'm so proud of the entire team for coming together this year and having the season we did, especially coming off of the non-season last year during the height of Covid-19.  We had some re-entry pains this year, I think, but overall, we came together as a team behind some great leadership by the senior class and pulled together to have a fabulous season.  It's great to be back in the gym and together as a team and we all hope that the winter sports teams are fortunate enough to get that same opportunity to be together and play, compete and bond.

NCAA's a Fun and Successful End to our Season

What a whirlwind of an end to our season.  From the devastating loss and abrupt "end" to an otherwise extremely successful season to new life and a "new season" heading into the NCAA's!  We were in the last regional to come up on the selection show, but there we were--headed to NYC to Steven's Institute to play the host school.  We were the 6th seed and they were the 3rd seed, and #2 Trinity of TX was also in our pod along with NYU who was then #10 in the country.

The NCAA's is a really fun experience and I couldn't have been happier (unless we'd also won NESCAC's) for the team, and especially for our seniors to get this opportunity.  We played the 8pm game on Friday night, and the home team had a big crowd, which made for an exciting atmosphere.   

We blocked as well against Stevens as we had all year, out-blocking them 13-7!  It was a very competitive match overall, but our blocking was the stat that stood out as the biggest factor, which was really great.  We'd been working on our movement to the pins to get a good double block up for the last couple of weeks, and I think it really paid off.  We hit a .262 compared to their .148 which goes along with our blocking success.  Other than that, they actually had more aces than we did, and we only had two more kills and two more digs than they did, so it was really a very even match overall.  Other than the first set that we led from start to finish, each of the next three sets had multiple lead changes and tied scores!

Stevens Highlight Video at NCAA's

Now, we were to face a Trinty of TX team that has been a power team in Division III for years, but whom Tufts had actually beaten earlier in the season, so we were excited to get the chance to face off against them.  First, however, we were rewarded with some extra time in the city so the next day we walked around Hoboken and took in some sights and enjoyed some nice weather out and about stretching our legs during the day to prep for the late afternoon match on Saturday.

Trinity of TX Highlight Video

There were some issues with the roof leaking during the Clarkson vs NYU match before ours, which caused a delay, but we had already planned to spend the night in order to hold the rooms in case we won, so having the match pushed back a bit didn't really bother us too badly.  

We hung tough, but Trinity was a very good team with many weapons and lot of good hitters.  We contained one of the OH's very well, and we had an advantage in the middle and we used that well, but we were out of system a bit more than we'd have liked and couldn't take more advantage of our middle offense because of that.  In all, they were just a very solid and balanced team that was a very good challenge for us. Although we would have loved to have taken a game, all three sets were very competitive and we felt that we played hard, worked together, and gave it our all, which is all you can ask.

Now, our bus situation was a bit of an "experience" as well, right from the beginning when he was waiting for us at Old Chapel instead of the Athletic Complex.  We didn't have the breakdown issues from the NESCAC weekend, but we did have an interesting trip.  Our driver was very competent driver and navigated our big bus through the city very well, but it REEKED of smoke when we first got on, which was a bummer.  Thankfully, Emma had some air freshener that she repeatedly sprayed the bus with.  We had a little trouble communicating, but we eventually got that pretty much worked out.  Then, our driver got us stuck in a small turn-around on Steven's campus the first night looking for the gym so we could practice...fortunately the cop that was right there knew why we were there and instructed us to get off the bus and walk the short distance to the gym so we'd make our practice time while he sorted out our driver and the predicament the bus was in!  (Sorry I didn't get a picture of that, but it was a tight circle turnaround with a lovely flower planting in the middle and a building overhang that our bus was wedged between, and I hope both of those things managed to end up as nice as they started after our bus got maneuvered out of there?!

All in all, it was a much more "fitting" end to our season from our perspective.  That obviously doesn't always happen, but I was thrilled that this team was able to get this experience, especially after having such a wonderful season.  Sometimes things just have a way of working out, and this time, they certainly did in my view.