Three Cougs earn all-region honors from AVCA
LEXINGTON, Ky. - For a third-consecutive season, Washington State volleyball had three student-athletes recognized by the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) as all-region performers. Magda Jehlarova and Pia Timmer each received first team Pacific North All-Region honors while Laura Jansen was named honorable mention all-region as announced by the AVCA Tuesday.
The Cougs have now had at least three student-athletes honored as all-region in four of the last five seasons including each of the past three seasons. Washington State has seen a total of nine student-athletes recognized as all-region under Head Coach Jen Greeny with Jansen becoming the latest following Tuesday's all-region announcement.
Jehlarova becomes the first player in the program's history to earn four-consecutive first team all-region honors after a historic season for her on the court in which she posted the third-highest single-season attack percentage (.389) at WSU and climbed to second all-time in career blocks with 600 during the Cougs' NCAA Tournament run. Following the Cougs' NCAA second-round exit this past weekend, Jehlarova ranks third in the NCAA with 176 total blocks on the season and going into her final season at WSU, she will also rank second all-time at WSU in both career blocks/set (1.44) and career block assists (483) while ranking third in career solo blocks (117).
Earning her third-consecutive first team selection, Pia Timmer was one of the Cougs' leading forces at outside hitter all season and improved as the year progressed, finishing with 4.58 kills/set and 2.58 digs/set while hitting .289 (165-51-394) over her final 10 matches. Timmer joins her teammate, Jehlarova, as one of only three WSU players to be named all-region three-straight seasons. The senior from Germany moved into eighth all-time at WSU in career kills (1,283) and career aces (113), finishing the season with a career-best .238 hitting percentage and a career-high 40 aces.
A two-time All-Sun Belt Conference performer after four years playing for Arkansas - Little Rock, Jansen tallied a career-high 411 kills and had a career-best .264 hitting percentage (411-147-1000) in her one season wearing crimson and gray. Jansen finished just behind Timmer with 3.48 kills/set, had six double-doubles and four separate matches with 20 or more kills. She had 11 matches on the season with double-digit kills and a hitting percentage over .300 including a five-set win over Arizona in which she tallied a season-high 27 kills while hitting .370 (27-7-54) to help the Cougs prevail, 16-14 in a fifth.
Washington State finished the season 23-10 overall and 14-6 in the Pac-12 which is tied for its highest win total (23) under Head Coach Jen Greeny and tied for the highest conference win total in WSU volleyball history. The Cougs earned an at-large bid to a seventh-consecutive NCAA Tournament run which came to a close this past weekend with a second-round exit at the hands of second-seeded San Diego.
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