Abbey Hildenbrand and Julia Wheeler were named to the first-team American Volleyball Coaches Association All-Southeast Region roster announced by the organization with Carson-Newman being one of the four schools with multiple players on the top roster.
This year is the fifth time in program history that the club has recorded a pair of all-region selections joining teams from 2010, 2014, 2015 and 2019 which each group also had two.
Hildenbrand was second on the team in double-doubles with 15 with 10 in her final 16 matches of the season. In that time she has at least five smashes on 12 occasions and has been within two kills of a triple-double twice and within one once. A second-team All-South Atlantic Conference selection, she also earned SAC All-Tournament team honors. She closed out the season sixth in the league with 6.94 assists per set and fifth with 708 total helpers.
For her career, the Parker, Colo. native produced 3,487 assists, 1,139 digs and 326 kills sitting as one of the eight active Division II players with at least 3,000 assists and 1,000 digs. The 3,000th assist of her career came on Sept. 24 in a sweep of Anderson while she notched her 1,000th dig at No. 21 Wingate on Oct. 14. She has led the team in assists 18 times despite missing four matches with a wrist injury. Among active players she is 15th in Division II in assists.
Of the standout matches, Hildenbrand finished a kill shy of a triple-double in a sweep of Lincoln Memorial on Oct. 4 with 14 assists, 10 digs and nine kills hitting .562. Two weeks later, she notched a season-high 45 assists adding 11 digs in a win over Tusculum on Oct. 18.
Wheeler adds to her haul of laurels for the season. For the year, the Murfreesboro, Tenn. native brings her award tally to 12 adding to a first-team All-South Atlantic Conference honor and a SAC All-Tournament team selection. Wheeler is the fourth player in program history to earn all-region nods in two separate seasons joining three-time pick Morgan Ballard and two-time selections Carly Mozgai and Nikki James.
Wheeler has been one of the best players in the country this year ranking 10th in kills per set (4.38), 10th in points per set (4.83) and fifth in total kills (504). Her total kill tally is over 100 more than any other player in the SAC and was one of five players in the nation with at least 500. In the C-N record books, Wheeler's 4.38 kills per set average stands as the best in a single year passing Carly Mozgai's 4.17 set in 2010. The Murfreesboro, Tenn. native had the second-most kills for a single season in school history and finishing 19 shy of the all-time school record.
This laurel marks the 16th in her first two years on campus as she was in double figures for kills in 31 of the team's 33 matches leading the team in the category 30 times. Between last season and this year, Wheeler increased her kills per set average by one and her hitting percentage by nearly 60 points. She had tallied 18 double-doubles and five matches with 20-plus kills.
The three-time SAC Offensive Player of the Week matched a career-high with 27 kills, the second-most in a single match in school history, on a .348 hitting percentage adding 18 digs in a four-set win at Limestone on Sept. 10. Among a year of highlights, Wheeler notched a career-best .583 attack percentage with 14 kills on 24 swings in a sweep of Emory & Henry on Nov. 1.
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