Long Beach State University Athletics
The Beach Sweeps Top Big West Honors
12/1/2014 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
LONG BEACH, Calif. - Big West champion and undefeated Long Beach State swept the top awards from the Big West Conference and placed five on the All- Big West first team, the conference announced on Monday. Jenelle Hudson took home Player of the Year honors, Ashley Murray was selected as the Freshman of the Year and 30th year head coach Brian Gimmillaro won Coach of the Year honors.
Hudson, a junior transfer, is in her first year at the Beach but made an immediate impact on the 49ers. As the setter, she constructed the Beach attack that hit over .300 12 times this season and posted a .262 hitting percentage for the season. She dished out 10.21 assists per set while also averaging one kill per set and hitting .287. She led all setters in the conference and ranked second at LBSU with 2.77 digs per set.
The Beach setter from San Diego, Calif. is the eighth individual in Long Beach State history to be honored as the Big West Player of the Year. It is the 13th Player of the Year award in program history with Misty May, Tara Cross, Danielle Scott and Cheryl Weaver all earning the award multiple times. She is the first setter at the Beach to win the award since May did it three times in a row from 1996-98 and the first setter in the conference to earn the award since 2000.
Murray led all Big West freshmen in blocking and hitting percentage this year to take the top freshman honors. The middle blocker from Torrance, Calif. averaged 1.27 blocks per set, which ranked third overall in the Big West and was the fourth highest average among all Division I freshmen. She also ranked fourth in the conference and second on the team with a .359 hitting percentage while hitting just below two kills per set.
She is the fifth Beach player to earn the top freshman award and first since Caitlin Ledoux took home the honor in 2008.
Gimmillaro won his ninth Big West Coach of the Year award after leading his squad to an undefeated 16-0 mark in the Big West season. The Hall of Fame head coach has his team back in the NCAA postseason for the 27th time in program history - all under his tenure.
In addition to sweeping the top awards, Long Beach State placed four more players on the First Team. Chisom Okpala earned the honor for the third time in her career, joining an elite club of Long Beach State players to earn that distinction. She is just the ninth player in LBSU history to earn three First Team nods. She led the Beach with 2.96 kills per set this year and a .378 hitting percentage. She led the Big West with a .432 hitting percentage in conference matches.
Bre Mackie, Alex Reid and Tyler Jackson all earned their first All-Big West first team honors after stellar seasons at the Beach. Mackie put up career numbers with 2.82 kills per set, a .304 hitting percentage and 1.15 blocks per set. She had a career night in October when she pounded down a career-best 20 kills against Hawaii and eventually earned Big West and AVCA National Player of the Week honors for her performance.
Reid was selected to the All-Freshmen team in 2011 but earned her first career First Team honors this season. She tallied a career-best 284 digs this season and added in 2.73 kills per set as the only six-rotation player in the Long Beach State lineup for most of the season.
Jackson left her mark on the history books at LBSU this season as she climbed the top-10 list for all-time digs throughout the year. She currently ranks fourth for career digs at the Beach with 1,397 and was the only libero to earn the All-Big West first team distinction. She had a career-best 419 digs this year, leading the team with 3.95 digs per set.
The Beach placed five on the All-Big West first team for the fourth time in program history, equaling the program-best number of honorees from 1992, 1998 and 2008.
The Beach will begin postseason play on Friday when it faces familiar tournament foe, San Diego, at UCLA at 5:30 p.m.
