Five Ducks Earn AVCA All-Region Accolades
EUGENE, Ore. – The postseason awards haul for Oregon volleyball continued Tuesday morning with five Ducks earning AVCA Pacific North All-Region honors. Mimi Colyer was voted the region Freshman of the Year and joins Brooke Nuneviller and Hannah Pukis on the All-Region Team while Georgia Murphy and Gloria Mutiri were honorable mention picks.
Oregon, a No. 3 seed in the 2022 NCAA Division I Championship, has advanced to the regional semifinal for the eighth time in program history and will face Nebraska Thursday at 8 a.m. (PT) in Louisville, Ky. The match will be aired live on ESPNU.
With Tuesday's release, Colyer, Nuneviller and Pukis become the fifth UO trio to earn a spot on the all-region team. Nuneviller was also part of the spring 2021 group that included Mutiri and Karson Bacon.
2008: Neticia Enesi, Gorana Maricic, Sonja Newcombe
2012: Alaina Bergsma, Liz Brenner, Lauren Plum
2018: August Raskie, Ronika Stone, Lindsey Vander Weide
2020-21: Karson Bacon, Gloria Mutiri, Brooke Nuneviller
2022: Mimi Colyer, Brooke Nuneviller, Hannah Pukis
Colyer is the program's second AVCA Pacific North All-Region Freshman of the Year, an honor she now shares with Nuneviller who was the 2018 recipient. Colyer, the 2022 Pac-12 Freshman of the Year, ranks fifth in the conference with 4.19 kills per set and had a double-double—15 kills, 10 digs—in the team's four-set win over Arkansas in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
Nuneviller becomes the second player in program history to be named to three all-region teams, and first since Michele Krebsbach (1986, '88-89). Nuneviller, sixth in the Pac-12 with a career-high 4.05 kills per set, has 20 double-double performances this season. During the opening weekend of NCAA play, Nuneviller averaged 4.57 kills per set while hitting .329 in wins over LMU and Arkansas.
In her first season as a Duck, Pukis has dished out a career-best 11.23 assists per set while helping the team to a Pac-12-leading .298 hitting percentage. In the NCAA opener, the Tacoma, Wash., native set Oregon to a .351 hitting percentage against LMU, UO's fifth-best mark in an NCAA Tournament match. This year's all-region selection is the third of Pukis' career with two previous awards at WSU.
Murphy enters the NCAA regional round averaging 3.65 digs per set, a figure that ranks seventh in the Pac-12. With her third dig in the second round against Arkansas, Murphy became the fifth UO player to reach 1,500 career digs. She finished the match with 19 digs and helped Oregon hold the Razorbacks to a .120 hitting percentage.
Mutiri currently sits ninth in the Pac-12 with a .342 hitting percentage and has registered 10 or more kills in 10 matches this year including a season-high 17 kills—while hitting .441—against Colorado. In Oregon's win over Arkansas, she posted six kills, four digs and three blocks to help the team advance. The senior opposite has 17 outings this year with at least three blocks.
As all-region selections, all five Ducks will now be considered for AVCA All-America honors which will be announced Wednesday, Dec. 14.
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