Record Setting Trio of Anteaters Earn First Team All-America
May 04, 2015 | Men's Volleyball
LEXINGTON, Ky. – For the first time in school history, UC Irvine had three student-athletes named to the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Division I-II Men's All-America first team highlighted by senior Michael Brinkley.
The awards will be presented at the NCAA Men's Volleyball Championship Banquet on the campus of Stanford University on Wednesday (May 6).
Brinkley becomes UCI most decorated men's volleyball player, earning his third consecutive first team All-America selection. The libero is the 14th player in AVCA history and the first in program history to be a three-time AVCA first-team All-American. Brinkley joins Stanford's Erik Shoji as the only three-time libero selectons as Shoji is the lone four-time (2009-2012) honoree. Brinkley is the NCAA active leader in career digs with 1,091 and leads the Anteaters with a 2.95 dig average.
Opposite Zack La Cavera and outside hitter Tamir Hershko join Brinkley on the first-team. It is the first All-America honor for each player.
La Cavera, the MPSF Player of the Year, leads UC Irvine with a 3.88 kill and 4.69 point average. He was named the MPSF Championship Most Outstanding Player after recording a then-career-high 25 kills in UCI's MPSF semifinal win against USC then bettered it with 26 kills in the championship match against Pepperdine. The opposite has posted 26 double-digit kill performances, including a streak of 13 straight entering the NCAA semifinals this week. Of those 26 double-digit kill efforts, he hit over .400 in 13 matches. The senior also leads the MPSF with 43 service aces.
Hershko is second on the team with a 3.55 kill and 4.12 point average. He owns a .354 hitting percentage which ranks second among outside hitters in the MPSF. The sophomore has recorded double-digit kills in 25 of 32 matches this season and averages 1.29 digs per set and 0.32 aces. Hershko, who was the Most Valuable Player of the Outrigger Invitational, has also garnered first team All-MPSF, MPSF Player of the Week twice as well as AVCA National Player of the Week honors this season.
The 2015 selections were made by the AVCA Division I-II Men's Volleyball All-America Committee: chairperson Mark Pavlik (Penn State), Sam Shweisky (Princeton), Brian Baise (Harvard), Pete Hanson (Ohio State), Dan Friend (Lewis), Jeremy Price (Grand Canyon), Kevin Ring (UC San Diego), Bill Ferguson (USC), David Heller (Mount Olive), Brandon Skeweres (Limestone) and Cole Tallman (Erskine).
UC Irvine is the No. 2 seed for the NCAA Championship and will play the winner of the Loyola/Pfeiffer play-in match on Thursday in a semifinal at 6:00 p.m. at Maples Pavilion.
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