WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. -- Two Eph volleyball players were honored by the New England Women's Volleyball Association this past week. Senior libero Aly McKinnon received an invitation to the NEWVA Senior Classic in recognition of four strong years of play at Williams. First year Claire Miller was named to the All New England Rookie Team.
McKinnon wraps up her stellar defensive career with the Ephs ranking seventh all time in digs, having tallied 1283 in her four years. She also is seventh all time in digs per set, averaging 2.92. Having played in 440 sets (10th all time) McKinnon also is fifth on the career ace list (127) and tied for fifth in aces per set (.29). On October 1st McKinnon set the program record for digs in a match against Trinity (CT), with 38 digs.
In 2011 McKinnon led the team in digs with 420, also leading the team in digs per set with 3.82. She also led the team in service aces (40) and service aces per set (.36) while playing in every single set for the Ephs.
In her rookie season Miller made the difficult transition to the collegiate game look relatively straightforward. A key component of the Williams offense, she played in 105 sets and had a team leading 332 kills, good for 3.16 kills per set. Miller led all first years in the NESCAC in kills per set, and was a finalist for the NESCAC rookie of the year award. Miller also tallied 319 digs for the year, trailing only McKinnon, with 3.04 digs per set. Miller had a career high 30 digs on October 1st against Trinity, which is tied for the seventh highest match total all time.
McKinnon and Miller are not the only Ephs to have garnered great individual success this season. First year setter Amanda Schott wrapped up her first year running the Williams offense with 1008 assists (8th highest season total), averaging 9.16 assists per set (also 8th all time).
Junior Haley Eagon and first year Raea Rasmussen tied for the team lead in block assists, with 65 apiece, leaving them tied for the 10th highest season total all time. Eagon, however had single blocks, meaning she averaged .79 blocks per set (8th all time, 85 total blocks) while Rasmussen averaged .72 (9th all time, 78 total blocks).As a team, the 127 digs the Ephs recorded against Trinity was the third highest total in program history, while their 14 aces against Wheaton (MA) on October 21st was tied for 10th all time.
