AVCA Individual Awards

The All-American teams were announced on Tuesday with three additional awards announced on Wednesday. The additional awards use to be done at a banquet and now they were just released prior to the first match. We probably need to figure out a better way to do this. With that said, Region X came away with a clean sweep of these awards as Melanie Hughes (CMS) won for Assistant Coach of the Year, Julie Jenkins (Trinity) won for Coach of the Year and Jenna Holmes (CMS) won for Player of the Year. I thought a few more words were needed for this accomplishment. You can find the AVCA announcement on Holmes here. You can find the AVCA announcement on Coaches Hughes and Jenkins here.

Coach Hughes joined CMS in 2021 and during her time there the Athenas have lost just 3 matches. Melanie coordinates the team’s defense and oversees all technical responsibilities of the team. Her efforts have helped continue this elite program operate as one of the best in the nation. Melanie joins Coach Morgan Coberly who won this award in 2014. CMS is the first and only program to have won this award twice in its history.

Coach Jenkins won AVCA Coach of the Year for the second time in her career (first being in 1999). It seems an easier decision awarding her this than trying to explain why she doesn’t win every year. This was her 38^th season as the head coach of Trinity and she leads all active DIII coaches in victories. As I’ve written before, Coach Jenkins isn’t about winning (although she does that a lot) but about success. Her teams, regardless of the record, are always successful because of the wonderful student-athletes she helps mold. Tomorrow will be her second chance at a national title and she’ll have at least one Southwestern fan pulling for her.

It’s kind of hard to wrap your head around the fact that Jenna Holmes is just the fourth player from the West to win AVCA Player of the Year as she breaks the Calvin streak of four straight wins. Holmes was the best player on the only team to go undefeated during the regular season. She is a six-rotation outside that excels on both offense and defense as well as the service receive. She is listed at only 5’9”, but she towers in the air when swinging and always brings joy to my heart when she’s crushing the volleyball. A well-deserved award to this junior who should be on a mission to bring CMS back to the championship next year, which will be hosted at CMS.