WINTHROP, Mass. – Following one of its best seasons in team history, the Emmanuel women's volleyball program finished with five players named to the Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) All-Conference Teams, as announced by the conference office on Tuesday afternoon.
Among the five student-athletes, the GNAC Player of the Year Award went to senior Isabella Marquez, while the Setter of the Year was presented to junior Kason Huynh. Emmanuel's head coach, Bori May, was voted the GNAC Coach of the Year.
Along with their major award wins, Marquez and Huynh were named to the All-Conference First Team, as voted on by the conference coaches. Joining the duo on the GNAC First Team is sophomore Letitia Bossou. Junior Scheala Nielsen was voted to the All-Conference Second Team in her first year with the Saints, while sophomore Madison Sherman earned a spot on the GNAC Third Team.
Marquez becomes the Saints first Women's Volleyball Player of the Year since 2006, when Lindsey Parker ('09) claimed the honor. Marquez becomes just the third Saint ever to be awarded the Player of the Year, joining Parker and Nessa Klein ('02), who won Player of the Year in 2000.
An outside hitter and two-year co-captain of the Saints, Marquez ranked second in the conference with 3.37 kills per set and third in total kills with 283. Solidifying her honors as Player of the Year was her performance against the GNAC teams that qualified for the playoffs. In 23 sets against those teams, Marquez tallied 88 kills for an average of 3.83 kills per set.
Huynh becomes the first Setter of the Year in program history and the only player in conference history ever to be named Rookie of the Year and Setter of the Year over the course of a career. In addition, Huynh becomes just the fifth player in GNAC history to win two separate major awards from the conference in women's volleyball.
Splitting time as a setter and outside hitter this season, Huynh averaged 7.48 assists per set as a junior, a remarkable average considering she finished the year with 80 kills on 272 attempts. Similar to Marquez, the junior co-captain stepped her game up against the best in the GNAC, averaging 8.41 assists per set in the 27 sets against playoff teams.
May becomes the first Women's Volleyball Coach of the Year at Emmanuel since 2014, when Denitra Seals won Coach of the Year in 2014. The third-year head coach led the Saints to the best season in terms of winning percentage in team history (.933), after going 28-2. Emmanuel went unbeaten in GNAC play for the first time since 2006, finishing the season a perfect 13-0 in conference. Included in the Saints run was a program record 23-match winning streak.
Bossou enjoyed a breakout season in her second year at Emmanuel. The sophomore right side hitter was third in the conference with 3.02 kills per set, while leading the Saints in total kills with 296. Her attack percentage of .273 ranked fifth in the conference and was best among non-middles in the GNAC.
Nielsen, who began the season as an outside, made the shift to libero, strengthening the defense of the Saints this season. A transfer from El Camino College, Nielsen finished the season averaging 3.70 digs per set. After making the transition to libero in early October, Nielsen averaged 4.64 digs per set over the final month of the season.
Sherman earns her first nomination to an All-Conference Team, picking up a GNAC Third Team selection to end the year. The sophomore middle was the conference's top blocker, leading the GNAC with 1.00 blocks per set. She becomes one of eight Saints to average at least 1.00 blocks per set in a season since 1994.
The Saints finished the season 28-2, as their program-record 23-match winning streak ended in the GNAC Semifinals at the hands of Regis, 3-1. Emmanuel finished the season 58th in the NCAA Power Index (NPI), by far their best ranking since the metric became available. Their position in the NPI left them 11 spots out of an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament.
