Four Atlantic 10 volleyball standouts have been named All-America Honorable Mention by the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA). Dayton senior Isolde Hannan and junior Alaina Turner, Duquesne senior Arielle Love and George Washington sophomore Chidma Osuchukwu were all honored by the AVCA, which announced its 34th annual All-American awards Wednesday.
The awards will be presented Dec. 19, 2014, in,Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, at the AVCA All-America/Players of the Year Banquet. The event is held in conjunction with the 2014 AVCA Convention.
Isolde and Turner are UD’s 12th and 13th All-Americans. This is the first All-American award for both student-athletes after being named to the AVCA Midwest All-Region Team on Dec. 9. Hannan's and Turner's Honorable Mention All-America accolades are the eighth and ninth time a Dayton Flyer playing under head coach Tim Horsmon has been recognized.
An Atlantic 10 All-Conference Second Team honoree, Hannan finished her career at Dayton ranked third all-time with 475 career assisted blocks. This season she was named A-10 Defensive Player of the Week on Nov. 3 and A-10 Offensive Player of the Week on Nov. 10. Hannan ranked second in the league and 21st nationally with a .395 hitting percentage while also ranking 37th nationally with 145 total blocks in 2014. Her 1.15 blocks/set led the Flyers and was fifth in the A-10.
The 2014 Atlantic 10 Player of the Year and All-Conference First Team member,Turner finished the season first in the A-10 and 30th nationally in kills/set with 4.26, she also led the league and ranked sixth nationally with 0.50 aces/set and her 5.09 points/set were tops in the A-10 and 16th in the NCAA. With her 30 kills against American in the NCAA Tournament First Round, Turner reached the 1,000 kill mark for her career and her 558 kills this season rank fourth-most in the Dayton record book.
Love, who was named to the 14-person AVCA Division I Midwest All-Region Team on December 9th, finished the regular season hitting .432 with 354 kills (3.51/set). She added 122 blocks (1.21/set), 29 solo. In conference play, she hit an incredible .497.
Love finished her Duquesne career as the program's all-time leader in hitting percentage with .359, which included a program record single-season best .430 this year. Her 364 blocks is fifth in program history (64 solo, 9th best and 300 assists, t-3rd best).
She is the second player in program history to be honored by the AVCA as an All-American. Current graduate assistant Liz Homan was a 2011 AVCA Division I Honorable Mention.
Osuchukwu joins Svetlana Vtyurina (2nd Team, 1994) and Sarah Hokom (Honorable Mention, 2003) as the only players in program history to earn an All-America distinction from the AVCA.
The Virginia Beach, Virginia, native, who was also named to the AVCA All-East Region Team, Atlantic 10 All-Conference First Team and Atlantic 10 All-Championship Team this season, concluded the 2014 campaign as the A-10 leader in blocks with an average of 1.47 per set, a mark which ranks ninth in NCAA Division I. She also paced the A-10 and ranks 18th in the nation with 162 total blocks.
Offensively, she led GW with 411 kills and ranked third in the Atlantic 10 with an average of 3.74 kills per set while swinging .357 on the season, which placed her fifth overall in the conference.
Through two seasons at GW, Osuchukwu has totaled 671 kills on a .360 attack percentage with 68 solo blocks and 205 block assists.