Mountain Pacific Sports Federation

All-MPSF Men's Volleyball Announced

4/16/2024 11:00:37 AM

Photo: 2024 MPSF Player of the Year, UCLA's Merrick McHenry (by: UCLA Athletics)

2024 All-MPSF Men's Volleyball Teams (PDF)
 
UCLA redshirt senior middle blocker Merrick McHenry (Bedford, TX/L.D. Bell HS) leads the MPSF with a .577 hitting percentage, as he and the Bruins lead the nation in team hitting (.373). McHenry won three weekly conference awards this year, twice offensively (Apr. 1 & 8) and once defensively (Feb. 5). He registered 19 kills with a .586 hitting percentage through the two late-season wins over No. 3 Grand Canyon to help vault the Bruins into first-place. The week prior, he accumulated 15 kills on 19 errorless swings to hit .789, and served four aces, through a pair of MPSF wins over No. 6 Stanford (Mar. 29-30). On night two of that series, McHenry ended the match with three straight aces in the third set. In the regular season finale against Concordia, he hit an errorless .857 to record his 23rd-straight match of hitting at least .400, while also picking up his school-record 48th career block solo. McHenry, the first middle blocker to earn MPSF Player of the Year since 2002 (Brad Keenan-Pepperdine), represents UCLA’s sixth recipient overall (Miles Partain, 2022; Brandon Taliaferro, 2000; Stein Metzger, 1996; Jeff Nygaard, 1995 & ‘94).
 
 
Pepperdine redshirt freshman middle blocker Ethan Watson (Sunnyvale, CA/St. Francis HS) enters the MPSF Championship Tournament ranked second in the conference with 1.26 blocks per set and third with a .517 hitting percentage. He is one of just two players ranked in the MPSF’s top-five in both categories through the regular season. Watson burst on the collegiate scene in a two-match series against UCSB, Feb. 8-10, when he recorded a .607 series hitting clip (19-2-28) with 15 blocks. The following week, he hit an errorless .467 through two matches against UCLA in his first career MPSF matches. Watson went on to be one of the MPSF’s top middle blockers within the conference schedule, hitting .451 and totaling 40 blocks (seven solo).  Watson is Pepperdine’s fourth MPSF Freshman of the Year recipient (Jonathan Winder, 2005; Sean Rooney, 2002; Scott Wong, 1998)