CoSIDA 2018 Academic All-District Volleyball Team Release
The College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) announced the 2018 Google Cloud Academic All-District Women’s Volleyball Team on Thursday.
The Mid-American Conference had two student-athletes named to the 2018 squad, Akron’s Kayla Gwozdz to the First Team and Ball State’s Kate Avila to the Second Team.
Majoring in social work with a minor in addiction services, Kayla Gwozdz maintains a 3.99 cumulative GPA and was one of seven student-athletes to be named to the Academic All-District IV First Team for Division I. Gwozdz is a two-time honoree as she was named to the Academic All-District IV Second Team a year ago.
In her senior season, Gwozdz recorded 309 kills (3.03 per set) on a .189 hitting percentage and was responsible for 20% of the Zips' total points. Throughout her four years at Akron, she tallied 900 kills on a .161 hitting clip while adding 394 digs.
Gwozdz now moves to the national ballot for consideration for Google Cloud Academic All-America accolades. The national teams will be unveiled on Dec. 10.
A speech pathology major with a 3.98 grade point average, Kate Avila earns the honor for the second straight year after finishing the regular season ranked 67th in the nation with a 4.86 digs-per-set average. Her play in the backcourt helped the Cardinals secure their second straight Mid-American Conference West Division title, as well as the third seed in this week's MAC Tournament.
A two-time MAC West Division Defensive Player of the Week this season, Avila has collected double digit digs in all 29 of Ball State's matches this season, with 20-or-more on 11 occasions. She registered a season-high 29 digs in the win over UMBC (Sept. 14) and tallied 28 digs at Dayton (Aug. 28).
Avila, who has played all 350 sets over her career including the last 346 as the Cardinals' libero, enters the MAC Tournament with 1,626 career digs to rank fifth in program history and 43rd among active NCAA Division I players. In addition, Avila's 4.65 career digs-per-set average is fourth on BSU's all-time list, while her 87 matches (including 58 straight) with double-figure digs are fifth.
To be eligible for the Academic All-America program, a student-athlete must be a starter or important reserve with at least a 3.330 cumulative grade point average and must have participated in at least 50 percent of the team's matches. First-team honorees will advance to the Google Cloud Academic All-America ballot.
The Academic All-District program recognizes student-athletes in eight geographic districts across the United States and Canada. Akron and Ball State are in District 5 which includes Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Ohio.
Student-Athlete write-ups courtesy of Akron and Ball State’s Sport Information Department
