Four Pac-12 volleyball athletes on Senior CLASS Award watch list
SAN FRANCISCO - Four seniors from Pac-12 volleyball teams were named as candidates for the 2014 Senior CLASS Award®, as announced by the organization today. Representing the league on the list are OREGON’s Liz Brenner, ARIZONA’s Madi Kingdon, UCLA’s Karsta Lowe and WASHINGTON’s Krista Vansant. The four candidates are the most of any conference.
To be eligible for the award, a student-athlete must be classified as an NCAA Division I senior and have notable achievements in four areas of excellence – community, classroom, character and competition.
Liz Brenner (Portland, Ore.) is a two-time AVCA second team All-American and was an All-Pac-12 selection as a junior. In 2013, she led the Conference with 4.67 kills per set, a mark that ranked ninth in the nation. She is currently 10th on Oregon’s career kills list and sixth on the career points list. Academically, Brenner is pursuing a degree in psychology while also earning a minor in business administration. She has spent time volunteering at Willamette Christian High School teaching kids the sport of volleyball, and is also involved with the non-profit athletics organization KIDSPORTS, where she assisted with a children’s multi-skills camp. She is a rare multi-sport athlete, throwing the javelin for the Ducks track & field team and is also a member of the sand volleyball team. She has also been a member of the softball and women’s basketball teams at Oregon during her career.
Madi Kingdon (Phoenix, Ariz.) earned AVCA honorable mention All-America , AVCA All-West Region and All-Pac-12 honors last season. The team captain for 2014, she led the Pac-12 in points as a junior and currently ranks sixth in school history with 1,309 career kills. Off the court, Kingdon is a general studies major with a focus in sports management, and has plans to pursue graduate school. She has also read, tutored and mentored young children at several elementary schools in the Tucson community.
Karsta Lowe (Rancho Santa Fe, Calif.) enters her senior year with the Bruins after earning AVCA honorable mention All-America, AVCA All-Pacific South Region first team and All-Pac-12 honors. A walk-on in her freshman year, she has become a consistent starter at opposite hitter for the past two seasons, earning Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Week honors this week. Lowe has earned Academic All-Pac-12 honorable mention accolades the past two seasons as a geography/environmental studies major with a minor in environmental engineering. In the community, she has worked at various summer camps and makes frequent visits to the Mattel Children’s Hospital.
The reigning AVCA Division I National Player of the Year, Krista Vansant (Redlands, Calif.) was also the winner of the 2013 Honda Award for volleyball and was the Pac-12 Player of the Year. A first team All-American, she led Washington to a 30-3 record as a junior, winning the Pac-12 title and reaching the NCAA Tournament semifinals. In the classroom, Vansant currently maintains a 3.28 grade point average. She served as a team representative on the Washington Student-Athlete Advisory Council (SAAC) and has also taught volleyball clinics on a school anthropology trip to Tahiti this past summer.
For more information on the Senior CLASS Award and the full list of candidates, visit www.seniorclassaward.com.