PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Four American Athletic Conference volleyball players earned All-Region honors, as the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) announced its 2018 All-Region awards on Tuesday. UCF senior libero Jordan Pingel and freshman outside hitter McKenna Melville each earned Southeast Region accolades, while Cincinnati outside and right side hitter Jordan Thompson received her second All-Region nod in the North Region. Melville also became the conference’s first AVCA Southeast Region Freshman of the Year. Wichita State sophomore libero Giorgia Civita was named to the North Region’s Honorable Mention list.
The American has had at least four AVCA All-Region selections in each of its six seasons. The most All-Region honors the league received was 11 in 2014. The AVCA will announce its All-America honorees next week.
Thompson, the league’s two-time unanimous Player of the Year, has set 11 conference records in 2018, emerging as one of the top players in the country. A two-time AVCA National Player of the Week, three-time VolleyMob National Player of the Week and eight-time conference Offensive Player of the Week this season, Thompson has led the country in kills (827), points (909), kills per set (6.27) and points per set (6.89) since the second week of the season. She set The American’s single-season and career records in each of these categories, while recording the most kills in three, four and five-set matches in conference history. Her kills per set is the highest in NCAA volleyball since the 25-point scoring format began in 2008. No one in the country has had a higher average since the 2006 season. The last time any player in the nation had more than 800 kills in a season was in 2004, with one player totaling 823 and the other 842; that was during the 30-point scoring format. The most kills any player has had prior to Thompson this year in the current 25-point scoring format is 6.23 kills per set and 715 total kills.
Melville and Pingel were instrumental in guiding the Knights to their first NCAA Tournament national seed and first AVCA national ranking. The Knights went 27-4 on the year with an 18-0 mark in The American, earning the Black and Gold its second league championship in five years.
A four-time conference Offensive Player of the Week, Melville, The American’s Freshman of the Year, has had a tremendous rookie campaign. Leading the conference with 22 double-doubles, she ended the year ranked 10th in the nation in kills (529), 12th in points (586.5), 15th in kills per set (4.51) and 16th in points per set (5.01). Her points accounted for nearly a third of UCF’s total production, and defensively, she averaged 3.52 digs and 0.44 blocks per set.
A first team All-Conference selection, Pingel finished her senior season ranked second all-time in conference history with 2,262 career digs. She ended the year ranked 33rd in total digs (597) and 39th in digs per set (5.10)—each stat good for setting UCF’s single-season record. Pingel topped 20 digs in 17 matches this season and was named The American’s Defensive Player of the Week four times in 2018.
Civita, The American’s Libero of the Year, rewrote the Wichita State volleyball record book in 2018, compiling league-high and single-season records for both digs (728) and digs per set (5.78). She tallied 20 or more digs in 20 of the Shockers’ 32 matches, including a career-high 42 in Wichita State's contest at Tulsa Sept. 29. She also played in 126 of the Shockers' 127 sets during the season. Civita ended the year ranked sixth in the nation in digs per set, while her 5.51 career digs per set rank No. 1 in American history.