2018 Sun Belt Volleyball News and Notes:
Standings | Composite Schedule | Stats | Championship Recap

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• The 2018 Sun Belt volleyball season saw Texas State win its first Sun Belt regular-season title and second Sun Belt Tournament title. The tournament title came in the Bobcats’ fourth championship match appearance (2013, 2014, 2017, 2018).
 
• The Sun Belt had its most teams in the postseason in conference history with Texas State in the NCAA Division I Women’s Volleyball Championship and Appalachian State, Little Rock and Arkansas State in the National Invitational Volleyball Championship. The Bobcats earned their first-ever NCAA Tournament victory with a 3-1 triumph over Rice in the first round before suffering a second-round loss to fifth-seeded Texas.
 
Previously, the conference sent three teams to the NCAA Tournament in three consecutive seasons from 2007-09 and had three teams in the postseason in 2017 (Coastal Carolina in the NCAA Tournament and Arkansas State and Texas State in the NIVC).
 
• Texas State earned its first-ever NCAA Tournament win with a first-round victory over Rice. The win gave the Sun Belt its fourth NCAA Tournament win in seven years and its first since 2016. The Bobcats closed the regular season ranked 22nd in the NCAA Division I RPI.
 
• Georgia State junior outside hitter Morgan Hash was selected to the 2018 Google Cloud Academic All-America® NCAA Division I Women’s Volleyball Second Team, as selected by CoSIDA. She is the Sun Belt's first Academic All-America honoree since Georgia Southern’s Kym Coley was a second-team selection in 2014.
 
• The Sun Belt placed three student-athletes on the Google Cloud Academic All-District® Volleyball Teams, as selected by CoSIDA – Hash and South Alabama sophomore outside hitter Hannah Harris were named to the District 4 first team and Little Rock senior middle blocker Veronica Marin was named to the District 6 first team.

• Marin and Texas State freshman setter Emily DeWalt were named Honorable Mention All-America by VolleyballMag.com.
 
• The Sun Belt picked up three American Volleyball Coaches Association NCAA Division I Southwest Region awards with DeWalt named to the all-region team, Arkansas State senior outside hitter Carlisa May tabbed honorable mention and Texas State head coach Karen Chisum named Coach of the Year.
 
• Chisum led the Bobcats to their 10th conference tournament title and earned her sixth conference Coach of the Year honor to pace the Sun Belt’s postseason honors.

• DeWalt was named the Sports Imports/American Volleyball Coaches Association Division I National Player of the Week on Oct. 2. DeWalt is the fourth player in Sun Belt volleyball history to earn AVCA Division I National Player of the Week honors and the first since 2011. Previous Sun Belt winners were WKU's Amanda Schiff (Nov. 10, 2003) and Jordyn Skinner (Sept. 13, 2011) and Middle Tennessee's Ashley Adams (Sept. 6, 2005).
 
• Marin finished the year ranked fifth in total blocks (185) and 13th in blocks per set (1.48). She led the country in blocks throughout the latter half of the regular season.
 
• May, who was named Sun Belt Offensive Player of the Year for the third-straight year, closed her impressive career ranked second among active Division I players and fourth among active players across all divisions with 1,901 career kills. The Arkansas State all-time kills leader capped her senior campaign ranked in the Division I top 10 in six categories – second in attacks (1,627), tied for second in kills (584), third in points (645.0), fourth in attacks per set (13.23), seventh in kills per set (4.75) and points per set (5.24).