FULL 2019 AVCA ALL-AMERICA TEAMS
PROVIDENCE, R.I. – American Athletic Conference volleyball history was made on Wednesday, as Cincinnati redshirt senior Jordan Thompson became the league’s first American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) First-Team All-America choice. UCF sophomore McKenna Melville joined Thompson as an AVCA Honorable Mention All-America selection for the second straight season.
Thompson, a three-time unanimous American Athletic Conference Player of the Year recipient (2016, 2018-19), finished her career as the conference’s all-time leader in kills (2,664), kills per set (5.41), total attacks (6,070), points (2,920) and points per set (5.93). As of Dec. 15, she led all players in NCAA Division I volleyball for the 2019 campaign in points (870), points per set (6.96), kills (798), kills per set (6.38) and total attacks (1,735).
Thompson guided Cincinnati to the top spot in the East Division of The American with a 27-7 record (15-1 conference) this season, as the Bearcats earned the No. 1 seed in and was the runner-up of the inaugural American Athletic Conference Women’s Volleyball Championship tournament that took place in November. Cincinnati became the first team representing The American to reach the final 16 teams of the NCAA Division I Volleyball Championship earlier this month, downing VCU and No. 6 national seed Pittsburgh on its way to the tournament’s third round.
Melville shined in just her second collegiate season for East Division runner-up UCF (25-8, 14-2 in conference), helping the Knights win the first American Women’s Volleyball Championship tournament in five sets over Cincinnati in Orlando, Florida. She joined Thompson as a unanimous American All-Conference First-Team choice, ranking among the top-25 players nationally as of Dec. 15 in total attacks (1,446, 12th), kills (528, 14th), points (590, 17th), kills per set (4.51, 23rd) and points per set (5.04, 23rd).
Melville has logged the second-most kills per set (4.52), attacks per set (12.30) and points per set (5.03) in conference history over her first 63 career match appearances. She is also one of just five American players to claim multiple AVCA All-America citations in her career, joining Thompson (Honorable Mention in 2016, Third Team in 2018), SMU’s Avery Acker (Honorable Mention in 2013-15), SMU’s Morgan Heise (Honorable Mention in 2015 and 2016) and UCF’s DeLaina Sarden (Honorable Mention in 2013 and 2014).