Three Broncos Earn All-WCC Volleyball Honors

Three Broncos Earn All-WCC Volleyball Honors

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Two Santa Clara volleyball players have been recognized for outstanding play during their final seasons as a Bronco and one more earned an accolade during her debut season in 2017. Seniors Kirsten Mead and Jensen Cunningham were named First Team All-West Coast Conference while redshirt freshman Allison Kantor was named to the WCC All-Freshman team, announced by the conference on Monday.

All-conference and all-freshman teams were voted on solely by the WCC's 10 head coaches.

Mead totaled more assists than any player in the conference with 1,227 and finished second in the WCC with 10.58 assists/set. She had 18 double-doubles, a pair of 20-20 matches and seven matches with at least 52 assists this year. Mead started all 30 contests and played in all 116 sets of the campaign, during which she also produced 315 digs, 46 total blocks and 33 aces.

The setter finished her career with the fifth-most assists in Santa Clara history (4,250 - second most in the rally-scoring era) and sixth-best assist average (10.93/set – second-highest in the rally-scoring era). She tallied four of her five career matches with 60-plus assists during her senior campaign. Mead adds to a long list of accolades that includes All-WCC selections in all four years (two First Team, two Honorable Mention) as well as the conference's Freshman of the Year award in 2014.

Cunningham had a career season in 2017; she finished fourth in the WCC with a .347 hitting percentage, fifth with 115 total blocks and seventh with 0.99 blocks/set. Her 2017 hitting percentage is 39 points higher than her career average and 58 points higher than her previous single-season best of .289 (2016). She hit .433 or better 11 times while starting 29 of 30 matches and playing in all 116 sets.

The middle blocker finished her career with the fourth-most total blocks in Santa Clara history (346 - second most in the rally-scoring era) and tied for the sixth-best block average (1.03/set – second-highest in the rally-scoring era).

Kantor provided an offensive spark for the Broncos throughout conference action. The outside hitter finished the season with 200 kills in 84 sets (2.38/set) across 29 matches. She had six of her seven double-doubles for the season in Santa Clara's last seven matches and had double-digit kills nine times in WCC play.

CONNECT WITH THE BRONCOS ON SOCIAL MEDIA

Athletics: Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube | Snapchat (SCUBroncos)
Volleyball: Facebook | Twitter | Instagram

GO BRONCOS!