Lewis-Clark State College volleyball coach Jennifer Greeny was named the American Volleyball Coaches’ Association’s Northwest Region Coach of the Year for the fourth straight season while junior middle blocker Nicole Graybeal was named both the Player of the Year and the Newcomer of the Year for the Northwest Region, AVCA officials have announced.
Also, junior outside hitter Deddiy Alaimaleata joined Graybeal on the all-Northwest Region team, while junior outside hitter Kelli Tikker was an honorable mention selection.
The AVCA picks eight region teams in the NAIA and the winners in each category are finalists for the national AVCA awards, which will be announced later. Greeny is a finalist for the fourth straight season while Graybeal was one of only two athletes who won both the Player of the Year and Newcomer of the Year for a region.
LCSC just wrapped up its season last week in the NAIA National Tournament where it advanced to the quarterfinals before it lost to top-ranked Lee. The Warriors finished the season at 31-3, its best all-time win percentage mark, and won both the conference regular-season and tournament titles for the fourth straight year under Greeny.
Greeny led LCSC to a perfect 14-0 Frontier Conference mark, which is the first time a team went undefeated in FC volleyball play since 1999 when the Warriors also did it in their first year in the league. LCSC also had a 20-match win streak during the season.
Greeny has a four-year career record of 112-24 at LCSC for a .824 winning percentage.
Graybeal is 6-foot-2 middle blocker from Spokane and was in her first year of the program after she transferred from Spokane Falls Community College. She was named MVP of the Frontier Conference for her outstanding season.
Graybeal played in all but one match this season and finished second on the team in kills with 328 and was second on the team in hitting percentage at .341. She also was second in service aces with 50 and led the team in both solo blocks with 29 and block assists with 115. She also tied for fifth in digs at 112 and had 13 assists.
Her 115 block assists ranks fourth on LCSC’s single-season record list and her 144 total blocks ranks third.
Graybeal averaged nearly nine kills a match and hit double figures in kills in 10 of the last 13 matches she played in. She posted a season-high 19 kills in the semifinals of the conference tournament and had four or more service aces in a match five times. She also had a season-high of 10 block assists and four solo blocks.
Alaimaleata is a 6-1 right-side hitter from Pago Pago, American Samoa. She attended the New Mexico Military Institute for two seasons before she transferred to LCSC.
Alaimaleata finished third on the team in kills with 314 but with a solid .358 hitting percentage, which ranks seventh on the program’s single-season list. She also had 58 assists, which ranked fourth on the team, and 58 digs. She had 13 solo blocks, which was second to Graybeal, and 70 block assists, which was third on the team. Her 83 total blocks also ranked third. She also had one service aces during the season.
Alaimaleata averaged 2.7 kills per match, but was unstoppable in her big matches. She recorded 13 matches with double-digit kills and hit at least .400 in 11 of those matches. Her lowest hitting percentage with double-digit kills was .308
Alaimaleata posted season-highs of 20 kills, .883 hitting percentage, four assists, seven digs, two solo blocks and eight block assists. At the national tournament, she had back-to-back matches with 18 kills.
Tikker is a 5-foot-9 junior from Nine Mile Falls, Wash. She completed her second year at LCSC after playing her freshman season at Gonzaga.
Tikker played both front row and back and led the team in kills with 361. She also was second in digs with 362, fourth in service aces at 38, fifth in solo blocks with four, sixth in assists with 22, and sixth in block assists with 41. She also was sixth in total blocks at 45.
Tikker had at least seven kills in LCSC’s final 19 matches and during that stretch, she finished with double-digit kills 15 times. She had a season-high 22 kills against Wayland Baptist early in the season.
