Leonard goes out as Setter of the Year
Ouachita Baptist senior Stormi Leonard was named the Great American Conference Setter of the Year Wednesday in Hot Springs during the league’s volleyball awards banquet.
Three local student-athletes were voted to the All-GAC First Team. Leonard earned First-Team honors along with teammate junior middle blocker Adrianna Nolly and Henderson State junior outside hitter Courtney Bolf.
It was the second Setter of the Year honor for Leonard, of Decatur, Texas. She is the GAC’s all-time assist leader.
Leonard earned all-GAC marks in each of her seasons in Arkadelphia and has been named Setter of the
Week three times this season. She set the GAC single game record for assists in a five-set lott to Henderson State earlier this season.
As an honors student with a 3.9 grade point average, Leonard also received the GAC’s Distinguished Scholar Athlete Award.
Bolf is a junior outside hitter from Fort Worth, Texas, and was one of just two unanimous First-Team selections, along with 2018 Player of the Year Zoe Hardin, of Harding. She is the second player in program history to earn First-Team All-GAC honors and the first since 2016.
Bolf racked up 393 kills and 384 digs during the regular season to become one of just three players conference-wide to have 350 or more of both. She was second in the GAC with 3.78 kills per set and fourth with 4.47 points per set and had 16 double-doubles on the year.
Wednesday also marked the third straight year Nolly, of Denton, Texas, earned an AllGAC nod. It is her first time to be named to the First Team.
Nolly led the team with 123 blocks, 403 kills and 500 points. The set her career high in kills with 24 twice this season against against Henderson State and Southwestern Oklahoma State.
On Aug. 31, Nolly set a new GAC record with a .864 hitting percentage against Southwest Baptist. Nolly earned Offensive Player of the Week twice this season and Defensive Player of the Week once.
The rest of the First Team included Arkansas Tech senior outside hitter Hunter Eshnaur, from Russellville; Harding senior setter Rachel Heussner, of Wayzata, Minn.; Southern Nazarene junior outside hitter Bailee Turang, from Corona, Calif.; and Southwestern libero Kaitlyn Dillon, of Edmond, Okla.
Henderson junior middle blocker Adrianna Hartmann, from Fredericksburg, Texas, was named to the All-GAC Second Team after leading the league in attacking percentage at .383. She had 217 kills on 482 attacks and just 52 errors. Hartmann was also a threat at the net on defense with 116 total blocks, second in the GAC, and an average of 1.13 per set.
Other members of the Second Team are Harding senior outside hitter Madison Poen, Northwestern Oklahoma State junior middle blocker Jennifer Eubanks, Oklahoma Baptist sophomore outside hitters Malia Leatherland and Mikayla Watson, Southeastern Oklahoma State senior Abby Jameson, Southwestern junior middle hitter Sofia Gruden and Southwestern senior middle hitter Elizabeth McVicker.
Ouachita sophomore Julianna Mack, of Little Rock, earned honorable mention in her first full season as libero. She produced 534 digs this season and set a career high of 48 against Henderson in September. The 48 scoops ties her with Madison Nagel, of Arkansas Tech, for the most digs in a five-set match in GAC history.
Henderson senior outside hitter Zuzana Ondruskova, from Bilovec, Czech Republic, picked up honorable mention recognition and Distinguished Scholar Athlete honors. She started all 31 matches for the Reddies with 264 kills and 326 digs as the lone senior and captain on the squad.
Other honorable mentions were Arkansas Tech junior outside hitter Allie Anderson, Harding senior libero Taylor Lake, Harding senior right side Emma Reeves, Northwestern freshman libero Dani Dagley, Northwestern junior Kiauna Clark, Northwestern senior outside hitter Brooklynn Hesson, Southeastern junior libero Caitlin Cosby, Southern Nazarene freshman libero Logan Matthews, Southern Nazarene junior setter Kylie Smith, Southwestern senior outside hitter Danusia Sipa Borgeaud and Southwestern sophomore setter Allie Hoang.
Ouachita junior outside hitter Katie Camp, from Plano, Texas, was one of five players named GAC Elite Scholar Athletes, each with a perfect 4.0 GPA. The others were Arkansas Tech’s Ellie Perkins, Harding’s Taylor Eubank, Northwestern’s Kaitlyn Robinson and Southwestern’s Sipa Borgeaud.
Leonard, Ondruskova and Ouachita senior defensive specialist Nikki Clay, of Bryant, were among 17 recipients of the GAC Distinguished Scholar Athlete awards. Other recipients were Arkansas Tech’s Marisa Drevenak and Eshnaur; Heussner, Lake, Poen and Reeves of Harding; Northwestern Oklahoma State’s Cassidy Hackett; Southern Nazarene’s Addi Floyd, Railey Rumohr, Smith, Evetta Soma and Turang; and Kodee Avery and Klemson Lancaster of Southwestern.
The conference tournament began Thursday at Bank OZK Arena. The semifinals will be held at 3:30 p.m. and 6 p.m. today with the final on Saturday at 2 p.m.