Jan. 15, 2005
DAYTON - The Dayton volleyball team reflected on its second straight Atlantic 10 Championship and consecutive trip to the NCAA Tournament as part of its postseason awards banquet held at UD Arena's Boesch Lounge on Saturday evening.
In 2004, UD earned its fourth consecutive 20-win season with a 23-9 overall record and became the first school in five years to repeat as A-10 Champion and make consecutive berths to the NCAA Tournament. The program also boasted the A-10 Player of the Year for the second straight season, had two players named AVCA Honorable Mention All-America and won its third A-10 Regular Season Title.
Four individual awards were handed out on the night with Christy Utnage being named White-Allen Most Valuable Player. Shanna Pressler given the Dr. R. Elaine Driedame Coach's Award while Courtney Pettke was tabbed as the team's most improved player and Nicole Schott won the "Nails" award given to the player who plays with the most intensity.
Utnage concluded her career in 2004 as an AVCA Honorable Mention All-American, A-10 Player of the Year, A-10 Championship Most Outstanding Player while being named to the All-Conference and Academic All-Conference Teams as well as earning ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District Third Team honors. This season, she had the third most attack attempts in Dayton history (1,424) and the fifth most kills (496) while winning A-10 Player of the Week honors twice. She ranked second in the conference in kills as well as seventh in digs and ninth in service aces this season.
Utnage closed out her collegiate career with 1,191 digs and 1,115 kills to rank fifth and eighth respectively in those categories and become just the fifth player in UD history to surpass 1,000 in each category. She is also tied for fourth in school history with 3,372 attack attempts and eighth with 152 service aces.
Pressler was also a ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District Third Team honoree and played in all 32 matches for UD during her final collegiate season. She was third on the team in digs (299) and blocks (80) while ranking fourth in kills (198). Pressler had 27 multiple block performances and 12 matches with at least 10 digs.
Pettke played in 82 games and 28 matches in her first collegiate season. She was fifth on the team in digs and was one of seven Flyers to reach double-digits in service aces. Pettke had eight matches with at least 10 digs including five of seven to end the season. She had a career-best 18 digs came in the A-10 Semifinal win over Duquesne. Pettke then came back with 14 in the A-10 Championship win against Xavier.
Schott became one of just two Flyers ever to record 1,000 assists in multiple seasons. She finished with 1,239 assists in 2004, the sixth most in school history. She was also third on the team with 27 service aces and had 12 double-digit dig performances. Schott had 25 assists or more in all but three matches. She reached the 50 assist plateau four times, including two straight career-high 57 assist matches against GW and Duquesne. |
