Zack La Cavera Named MPSF Player Of The Year To Lead Quartet Of First-Teamers
April 23, 2015 | Men's Volleyball
Irvine, Calif. -- For the first time in school history, UC Irvine had four players named to the All-Mountain Pacific Sports Federation first team, including senior Zack La Cavera who took home Player of the Year honors.
This is La Cavera's first MPSF post-season accolade and joins Jayson Jablonsky (2006) as the only other Anteater to receive the conference's top honor.
La Cavera leads the MPSF in total kills (394), points (485.5), and aces (41) entering the postseason. He is hitting .342 this year (394-107-838), helping the Anteaters lead the NCAA in hitting percentage (.358) and kills per set (13.92), and the conference in team aces (166). The opposite has posted 23 double-digit kill performances, including a streak of 10 straight entering the MPSF Tournament. Of those 23 double-digit kill efforts, he hit over .400 in eleven matches and over .300 in six other matches. He has recorded 20-plus kills four times this season, including a career-high 23 against Long Beach State (Apr. 3). La Cavera became the first Anteater player to be named MPSF Player of the Week on back-to-back weeks (Apr. 6 & 13), the first to do so in the conference in nearly two full seasons. He is also second on the team in digs (139) and third in blocks (85). The senior also collected the AVCA National Player of the Week accolade (Apr. 7) this year.
Joining La Cavera on the first-team are libero Michael Brinkley, outside hitter Tamir Hershko and middle blocker Jason Agopian.
Brinkley earns his third All-MPSF nod after leading the conference with a 3.11 dig average. The senior recorded the most digs in the conference this season with a school record 25 against Long Beach State (4/3). The two-time All-American has recorded 286 digs this season which ranks fourth in the UCI record books. He has recorded digs in double-figures 16 times this season, including the last eight matches.
Hershko averaged 3.41 kills and 3.97 points in MPSF matches this season. The outside hitter was named MPSF Player of the Week twice (1/12 & 2/16) as well as AVCA National Player of the Week on Jan. 13. He recorded kills in double-figures 22 times, including a season-high 22 at Stanford (2/20). The sophomore fired a career-high five aces against Penn State (1/8) on his way to being named the Most Outstanding Player of the 2015 Outrigger Resorts Invitational.
Agopian ranked second in hitting percentage with a .426 (158-45-265) mark against MPSF opponents. The middle blocker leads the team with a 1.01 blocking average. The junior posted a career-high eight block assists versus Penn State (1/8) and a career-best 13 kills in a win over Pepperdine (2/14). He also has 51 digs and nine aces.
This is the first MPSF award for both Hershko and Agopian.
UCI, who is currently ranked second nationally, is the No. 1 seed for the MPSF Championship. The Anteaters will battle eighth-seeded UCLA in a quarterfinal match on Saturday (Apr. 25) at 7:00 p.m. at the Bren Events Center.
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