Dec. 6, 2011
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By Eric DeSalvo
UCFAthletics.com
ORLANDO, Fla. (UCFAthletics.com) - After its first 20-win season since 2003, the postseason accolades continue to roll in for the UCF volleyball team as the AVCA (American Volleyball Coaches Association) announced Tuesday that Angelica Crump and Rachel Vukson were named to its Midwest All-Region team. The duo becomes UCF's seventh and eighth recipients all-time of this award.
For Crump, the sophomore outside hitter from Atlanta, Ga., landed on the all-region first team while Vukson earned all-region honorable mention.
"As nice as it was to garner Conference USA postseason accolades, it is even more exciting as we get to the regional and national awards," head coach Todd Dagenais said. "Angelica being named to the all-region first team recognizes her as being a national elite hitter and hopefully she has a shot at being named to one of the All-America teams because she certainly provides All-America numbers to our program.
"Rachel being honored as all-region is only our second honorable mention since joining Conference USA. This puts her as a candidate for honorable mention All-America," Dagenais added. "It is really exciting that two of our players are being recognized for national awards."
As UCF's only AVCA All-Region First Team award winner since the squad joined C-USA in 2005, Crump put up monstrous numbers in just her second year of action. The 6-foot-3 hitter smacked 499 kills on the year for a .265 hitting percentage and accumulated 529.5 points. She was named to the All-C-USA First Team and ranked third in the league in kills per set (4.34) as well as 21st in the nation in the category.
Setting Crump on the majority of her kills was Vukson. The senior from Oakville, Ontario, capped off her two-year career with the Knights by turning in the best season by a UCF setter in the rally scoring era. The 1,377 assists she hoisted in 2011 is the ninth-most all-time at UCF and the 11.97 assists per set led C-USA and ranks her fifth overall in the nation. Vukson was also a major asset to the Knights defense as she recorded 15 double-doubles in assists and digs and averaged 2.59 defensive helpers per set.
With the all-region awards handed out, both Crump and Vukson will wait until Dec. 14 to find out if either will be named an All-American. UCF has only had one All-America honor in its Division I history as former Knight Jenny Frank earned honorable mention in 2003.