2014 All-MPSF Volleyball Selections
April 17, 2014
2014 All-MPSF Men's Volleyball Selections
2014 MPSF Player of the Year
TAYLOR SANDER - #15 - SENIOR - OUTSIDE HITTER - BYU
BYU senior outside hitter and three-time AVCA All-American Taylor Sander (Huntington Beach, CA/Norco HS) averaged 4.60 kills per set while hitting .330 in the MPSF, in addition to a conference-high 5.46 points per set, leading the Cougars in becoming the quickest team ever to clinch the conference tournament's No. 1 seed this past March 29. He posted double-figure kills in 25 of the 26 overall BYU matches in the regular season, and recorded three double-doubles. On March 22, Sander became BYU's rally scoring career kill leader with 1,563 (1,672 through the regular season). Already BYU's all-time service ace leader coming into his senior year, Sander's career total entering the postseason is 171, ranking ninth in MPSF history. On January 18, he served nine aces, a feat achieved by only four other players in the 22-year history of the conference. He is a five-time MPSF Player of the Week, including twice this year. Sander is the first to earn back-to-back MPSF Player of the Year honors since Pepperdine's George Roumain (1998-99), while joining Hawaii's Costas Theocharidis (2001 & `03), and UCLA's Jeff Nygaard (1994-95) to earn the award more than once. Sander is also the first-ever to be a three-time MPSF major award winner (2011 freshman of the year, 2013-14 player of the year) and just the second MPSF Volleyball Player of all-time to earn four straight first-team all-conference honors (Carson Clark, UCI; '09-12).
2014 MPSF Freshman of the Year
LUCAS YODER - #25 - FRESHMAN - OUTSIDE HITTER - USC
USC freshman outside hitter Lucas Yoder (San Clemente, CA/San Clemente HS) wasted no time in making an impact in the Trojan program. In his first collegiate match on January 4, Yoder went for a .609 hitting clip (16-2-23) at current top-ranked Loyola-Chicago, and was named MPSF Player of the Week. Entering the postseason, that match still stands as the only loss of the year for the Ramblers. Yoder averaged 4.04 kills per set over the 24 conference matches this year, ranking fourth in the MPSF, as well as a seventh-best 4.36 points per set (fifth in all matches). He is the only freshman to be ranked in the top-30 nationally in kill average, sitting in seventh through the regular season. Yoder has tallied double-digit kills in 23 matches, including a career-high 23 kills against regular season conference champion BYU on February 1. Fifteen of his 23 double-digit kill efforts have gone for 15-plus, while breaking out for 20-plus five times. Yoder, a second-team all-conference selection and the lone unanimous member of the 2014 Off The Block Freshman All-American team, is the third MPSF Freshman of the Year from USC (Micah Christenson, 2012; Brook Billings, 1999).