IRVING, Texas – Two-time American Athletic Conference Volleyball Player of the Year McKenna Melville secured the fourth All-America honor of her UCF career, earning a place on the 2021 American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) All-America Third Team that was unveiled on Wednesday. Melville added a second straight College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) Academic All-America scroll by landing on the first team.
Melville, the 2020 and 2021 American Player of the Year, had previously been named an honorable mention All-American by the AVCA from 2018-20. Melville was the first player in UCF program history to land on one of the top three AVCA All-America teams and just the second player representing The American to do so, joining former Cincinnati standout Jordan Thompson (2018 third team, 2019 first team).
After previously making the second team in 2020, Melville also captured just the third Academic All-America First-Team selection in conference history (Avery Acker, SMU, 2015; Emma Roberson, Cincinnati, 2015) by posting a 3.94 GPA as a finance major.
Melville became just the second repeat American Player of the Year in the history of the conference this past season, alongside three-time award winner Thompson (2016, 2018-19). Melville led The American in conference matches with 5.67 points per set and 5.04 kills per set, hitting .288 in 20 league starts in 2021. Melville also paced all of NCAA Division I volleyball with 617 kills and 701.0 points across all matches as of Dec. 11. Melville led UCF to a fourth straight automatic NCAA Championship bid, where the Knights reached the second round of the tournament before falling in a five-set thriller to No. 13 national seed UCLA on Dec. 4.
Melville was one of five players representing The American to earn 2021 AVCA Division I All-Region awards on Dec. 7, with Melville and Anne-Marie Watson representing conference champion UCF on the All-Southeast Region First Team. Two players from Houston, Kate Georgiades and Abbie Jackson, earned All-Southeast Region Honorable Mention accolades for the 2021 team runner-up in The American. Tulsa’s Kayley Cassaday claimed a slot on the All-North Region Honorable Mention squad to round out the conference’s all-region honorees.
2021 American Athletic Conference Women’s Volleyball
Postseason Awards
CoSIDA Division I Academic All-America First Team
McKenna Melville, Sr., OH, UCF
AVCA Division I All-America Third Team
McKenna Melville, Sr., OH, UCF
AVCA Division I All-Southeast Region First Team
McKenna Melville, Sr., OH, UCF
Anne-Marie Watson, 5th, RS, UCF
AVCA Division I All-Southeast Region Honorable Mention
Kate Georgiades, So., L, Houston
Abbie Jackson, Jr., OH, Houston
AVCA Division I All-North Region Honorable Mention
Kayley Cassaday, Jr., OH, Tulsa