11/20/2019 7:30:00 PM | Volleyball
ANNISTON – On the eve of the 2019 Ohio Valley Conference Volleyball Championships, Jacksonville State added to its regular season title, collecting more honors at the league's postseason banquet.
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Second-year head coach Todd Garvey was named the OVC Coach of the Year by his peers, after the Gamecocks took the regular season crown after being picked to finish fourth in the preseason. It's the first conference Coach of the Year since 2009 for Jax State when Rick Nold received the honor for the second time by the OVC.
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A trio of Gamecocks earned All-OVC honors on Wednesday evening in senior Kaylee Frear, junior Lexie Libs and sophomore Lena Kindermann all receiving First-Team honors. For Libs and Frear, it marked the second-straight year finishing with all-conference honors.
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For Libs, First Team All-OVC selection was just the beginning as the junior from Floyds Knobs, Ind., was awarded OVC Setter of the Year. The first in the Gamecock program. She became the first JSU player to earn an individual postseason award since Abbey Breit was named 2007 OVC Player of the Year. Libs was a five-time setter of the week during the regular season, and enters Thursday's tournament opener with the 17th-most assists in Division I volleyball with 1,116. She guided an offense that led the conference in hitting percentage, and displayed her all-around athleticism with the third-most digs on the team and fourth-most blocks, while added 80 kills from her setter spot.
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Frear, a senior out of Colorado Springs, Colo., earned First Team All-OVC honors a year removed from making second-team as a junior. This season, Frear has a team-best .303 attack percentage with 274 kills. She recently became the 15th Gamecock in the Division I era of the program to reach 1,000 kills. Defensively, she led the way with 86 total blocks, helping her eclipse the 400 career mark last month. Along with Libs, fellow senior Shayla Schmidt and outsides Kaylie Milton and Sadie Anderson, Frear gives JSU one of the more formidable lineups at the net across the league.
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Also making the league's all-conference First Team is sophomore outside Lena Kindermann. The Gamecock lefty owns a team-best 353 kills and is fifth in the OVC in kills per set. She trails only Frear in team blocks, and is one of six Gamecocks to play in all 100 sets this season.
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JSU's all-conference honorees and the rest of the Gamecocks will begin the quest of defending their regular season title on Thursday evening with a 6 p.m. match against Southern Illinois-Edwardsville in the opening round of the 2019 OVC volleyball tournament held at Pete Mathews Coliseum.
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Admission is $5 per day pass. JSU students receive free admission with their student I.D. available. All matches during the tournament will stream on ESPN+ and fans can also following along with live stats available at JSUGamecockSports.com. Â
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Second-year head coach Todd Garvey was named the OVC Coach of the Year by his peers, after the Gamecocks took the regular season crown after being picked to finish fourth in the preseason. It's the first conference Coach of the Year since 2009 for Jax State when Rick Nold received the honor for the second time by the OVC.
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A trio of Gamecocks earned All-OVC honors on Wednesday evening in senior Kaylee Frear, junior Lexie Libs and sophomore Lena Kindermann all receiving First-Team honors. For Libs and Frear, it marked the second-straight year finishing with all-conference honors.
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For Libs, First Team All-OVC selection was just the beginning as the junior from Floyds Knobs, Ind., was awarded OVC Setter of the Year. The first in the Gamecock program. She became the first JSU player to earn an individual postseason award since Abbey Breit was named 2007 OVC Player of the Year. Libs was a five-time setter of the week during the regular season, and enters Thursday's tournament opener with the 17th-most assists in Division I volleyball with 1,116. She guided an offense that led the conference in hitting percentage, and displayed her all-around athleticism with the third-most digs on the team and fourth-most blocks, while added 80 kills from her setter spot.
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Frear, a senior out of Colorado Springs, Colo., earned First Team All-OVC honors a year removed from making second-team as a junior. This season, Frear has a team-best .303 attack percentage with 274 kills. She recently became the 15th Gamecock in the Division I era of the program to reach 1,000 kills. Defensively, she led the way with 86 total blocks, helping her eclipse the 400 career mark last month. Along with Libs, fellow senior Shayla Schmidt and outsides Kaylie Milton and Sadie Anderson, Frear gives JSU one of the more formidable lineups at the net across the league.
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Also making the league's all-conference First Team is sophomore outside Lena Kindermann. The Gamecock lefty owns a team-best 353 kills and is fifth in the OVC in kills per set. She trails only Frear in team blocks, and is one of six Gamecocks to play in all 100 sets this season.
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JSU's all-conference honorees and the rest of the Gamecocks will begin the quest of defending their regular season title on Thursday evening with a 6 p.m. match against Southern Illinois-Edwardsville in the opening round of the 2019 OVC volleyball tournament held at Pete Mathews Coliseum.
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Admission is $5 per day pass. JSU students receive free admission with their student I.D. available. All matches during the tournament will stream on ESPN+ and fans can also following along with live stats available at JSUGamecockSports.com. Â
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Players Mentioned
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Friday, November 07
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