RUSSELLVILLE, Ark. – Oklahoma Baptist had four student-athletes selected to the All-Great American Conference Volleyball team on Wednesday, highlighted by
Maci Langford's second consecutive Defensive Player of the Year honor.
OBU's first-team honorees were Langford and
Jill Leslie while senior
D'Erricka Frierson was named to the second team.
Avery Hellmuth rounded out the selections with designation on the honorable mention squad.
Langford is the first player in OBU's D2 history to win back-to-back GAC individual honors. Previously, Ezgi Guney was named the (NAIA) Sooner Athletic Conference's Setter of the Year in 2013 and 2014.
Furthermore, Langford is only the third GAC player to be named league's top defender in consecutive seasons. This fall, she led the GAC with a 4.87 per-set average, a mark that's eighth-best in OBU single-season history. She also accumulated 472 digs and moved her career total to 1,099, ninth-most in history. Her best match came against Washburn when she registered 32 digs in the five-setter on Sept. 8.
Leslie had an outstanding redshirt sophomore campaign. At one point last week, she was the only conference player to rank in the top-10 in four different statistical categories. Heading into the GAC Tournament, Leslie is second in attack percentage (.340) and seventh in points (3.32). In nine matches this year, she reached at least 10 kills including a career-high 19 against Southeastern Oklahoma State on Nov. 2. Leslie also attained at least four blocks in 12 contests.
For Frierson, she's having a career year with personal-bests in hitting (.227) and blocks per set (0.61). The McKinney, Texas native has found a groove heading into the postseason with 10+ kills in three of the last four matches. Frierson ranks ninth in the GAC in kills (2.77) and tenth in points (3.17). Eleven times this year she has reached double-digit kill totals including 18 in the regular-season finale against Southern Nazarene.
For the third time in her career, Hellmuth was named to the All-GAC Team. She's one of only four players in the Bison's NCAA era to earn that many. Malia Leatherland,
Taneyah Brown and Kaylee Buell are the others. This season, Hellmuth ranked eighth in the league in blocks per set (0.87) and averaged 2.66 points. In 10 contests, the Dallas native reached at least four blocks including eight at Ouachita on Oct. 19. Furthermore, she became just the tenth player in school history to reach at least 700 kills and moved into sixth place all-time with 289.0 total blocks.
Also of note, Hellmuth and
Laney Draper were the only GAC student-athletes to earn Elite Scholar Student-Athlete status.
