CHICAGO — The top team in the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference both during the league’s regular season and throughout the tournament, Olivet Nazarene University also came away as the top awardee when the league office announced its 2020-21 women’s volleyball postseason honor roll Monday morning.
The Tiger program collected a total of seven awards, followed by regular-season and tournament runner-up Trinity Christian College with five and Trinity International with four.
A total of 34 award winners were announced including 28 split evenly between the all-conference first and second teams. The 14-member first team was a familiar one with half of the names being on the squad one year ago. That list was made up of Indiana University South Bend’s Hannah Marchand (Sturgis, Mich.) and McKenzie Powell (Rolling Prairie, Ind.), Judson University’s Katie Valeria (Dodgeville, Wis.), Olivet Nazarene’s Becca Bell (Salem, Wis.), Saint Xavier University’s Nadia Atton (Midland, Mich.), Trinity International University’s Brianna Torres (Chula Vista, Calif.) and University of St. Francis’ Lauren Stefanski (Plainfield, Ill.).
Of that list, Valeria and Atton were three-peat selections.
In terms of all-league picks alone, Olivet Nazarene and Trinity Christian shared the top spot with four selections each with Olivet Nazarene amassing the most first-team members (three). Indiana South Bend and St. Ambrose University each had three of its team members named to one of the two squads.
Gaining two nods between the two teams were Judson, St. Francis, Saint Xavier and Cardinal Stritch University, while Lincoln College, Governors State University and Indiana University Northwest each boasted one representative.
Twelve of the 14 teams competing in the league this year garnered at least one award.
Olivet Nazarene’s Janelle Skinner (Bolingbrook, Ill.) came away carrying two of the top five individual awards after being named both the CCAC Player and Setter of the Year. The junior currently ranks No. 7 in the nation with her 11.03 assists-per-set average, while finishing No. 1 in the conference.
In 79 sets played covering 21 matches, Skinner totaled 871 assists, 16 service aces and 20 blocks. She also averaged 2.53 digs per set.
Recognized as the CCAC Libero of the Year was Lincoln’s Megan Gilliam (Waterloo, Ill.) after she led the league in digs per set (5.71). That average also rates 21st-best in the nation.
Over her 119 sets played in 31 matches, Gilliam totaled 679 digs, 553 receptions and 20 aces. The senior also recorded a .963 reception percentage.
Gaining CCAC Freshman of the Year accolades was Trinity Christian’s Amanda Lichtenstein (Morton, Ill.). The setter ranked third in the league in assists per set (9.6), tied for fourth in services aces per set (0.4) and 17th in digs per set (3.1).
Lichtenstein appeared in all 26 of the Trolls’ matches as well as all 91 of their sets played, totaling 875 assists, 287 digs and 39 service aces.
Named as the CCAC Coach of the Year in his first year at the helm of the Olivet Nazarene program was Daniel Cabrera, who guided the team to both conference titles and a nearly-perfect 20-1 record.
Rounding out the list of award winners was Trinity International University as the CCAC Champions of Character Team.