USA Volleyball Freshmen Daniel and Lewis Earn Postseason Honors
Freshman Mechell Daniel was named Sun Belt Freshman of the Year and named to the First-Team All-Sun Belt Conference team on Wednesday. Photo by Brad Puckett | usajaguars.com
Jessica Lewis earned a place on the Second-Team All-Sun Belt Team on Wednesday. Photo by Brad Puckett | usajaguars.com
As the Jaguar women’s volleyball team prepares for their quarterfinal match against Texas-Arlington in the Sun Belt Championships being held in Troy, Alabama the Jags had a pair of freshmen honored.
Freshman opposite side/outside hitter Mechell Daniel was named the Sun Belt Conference’s Freshman of the Year while also picking up first-team All-Conference honors. Fellow freshman outside hitter Jessica Lewis earned second-team All-Sun Belt honors.
The selection were announced Wednesday evening at the Conference’s pre-tournament banquet. The 16-member teams were selected by the 10 conference coaches. Daniel was the first first-team All-SBC team since 1995. This is also the first time since 2000 that the Jags have placed two student-athletes on all-conference teams.
Daniel, a 6’2″ freshman from Chelmsford, England, is only the second player to be named as an individual award winner. The previous was Marei Lirette who named the conference’s Player of the Year. Daniel’s 411 kills are the most ever by a freshman at South Alabama and also ranks as seventh-most in a single season as they head into the conference tournament. She also led the Jags and ranked third in the Sun Belt in both kills (3.83), and points (4.33) per set. Against conference foes she averaged 4.03 kills per set.
Daniel earned 14 double-doubles on the year with 13 of them came against conference foes and posted double figures in kills in 23 of her matches including a career-high 28 against Troy last month. That was her fourth 20-plus match of the season.
Daniel was selected as the Sun Belt’s Freshman of the Week on a conference-best four occasions this season and became the first conferecne player to ever be named both the top freshman and offensive player of the week.
Lewis, a Huntsville, Alabama native, came in and ranked fifth in the conference in kills (3.38) and points (3.78). She was also named the SBC Freshman of the week three times, second most to Daniel in the conference. She also earned the honor in back-to-back weeks.
Even though she missed four weeks of the season and 10 matches due to a foot injury but she still managed to record 247 kills. She earned two double-doubles during the season including a career-best 20-kill, 10-dig match in a near upset of regular season champion Western Kentucky. She led the Jags 10-times and posted double figured in 16 of her 18 matches played. She also had eight matches of 15 or more kills.
The fifth-seeded Jaguars will face the fourth-seeded Mavericks of Texas-Arlington at 5pm.