SAN MATEO, Calif. – Santa Clara beach volleyball garnered a program record five All-West Coast Conference honors, the league announced on Thursday.
Junior Julia Sangiacomo and senior Michelle Shaffer were named first team while graduate student Alexia Inman and freshman Nicole Robison made the second team with Alexie Epstein placed on the all-freshman team.
The all-conference voting and major awards were voted on by the seven conference head coaches.
Sangiacomo and Shaffer paired atop the lineup to post an impressive .824 winning percentage in 17 matches and was named 2022 AVCA Top Flight award winners earlier in the day. Individually, Shaffer finished with a 24-8 record on the year with 21 of those victories coming at flight one. Sangiacomo had a 17-11 record with 14 wins at flight one.
The Bronco duo becomes the school's the first ever first-team selections since the conference's inaugural season in 2016.
Inman played in all 32 Bronco matches this season and posted an 18-14 record. The graduate transfer from Cal went 10-5 at flight one, 4-4 at flight two and 4-5 at flight three.
Robison had a 7-6 record going undefeated at flight one in three matches, all while paired with Inman.
Freshman Epstein cracked the lineup from the first match and participated in every match picking up eight wins as she played in all spots of the lineup except flight one.
For Sangiacomo, it was her second all-league recognition after being named to the second team last season. It was the first honor for Shaffer, Inman, Robison and Epstein.
Santa Clara closed out the 2022 season last weekend advancing to the semifinals of the WCC Tournament before falling to No. 2 seed Pepperdine.
WCC Tournament Champion LMU nearly swept the major honors as Reka Orsi Toth and Megan Rice were named WCC Pair of the Year, Orsi Toth was named Defensive Player of the Year, Valma Prihti and Pepperdine's McKenna Thomas were named Co-Freshmen of the Year and head coach John Mayer was named Coach of the Year.
