LEXINGTON, Ky. – Junior Kentucky middle blocker
Queen Nzenwa (Baltimore, Md.) was named an American Volleyball Coaches Association All-America Honorable Mention selection, as announced Wednesday by the AVCA offices in Lexington, Ky. The awards will be presented Dec. 14, 2007, at the AVCA All-America/Players of the Year Banquet at the Sacramento Convention Center in Sacramento, Calif.
“We are really proud of Queen for earning this honor,” UK head coach Craig Skinner said. “This is a great award for our program and another indication that we are headed in the right direction. We are excited for Queen. She has worked very hard to get to this point and she is looking forward to doing even bigger things in her senior year to help our program continue to rise to the top.”
Nzenwa, a 2007 All-Southeastern Conference First Team selection and an AVCA All-South Region honoree, recorded an impressive junior season in which she became the school’s all-time career and single-season leader in block assists. Nzenwa led the SEC in both blocks per game and hitting percentage, finishing the year with a league-best .371 hitting percentage and a conference-leading 1.61 blocks per game.
Nzenwa is the first Wildcat to earn All-America recognition since Jane Belanger became Kentucky’s fifth All-American in 1993.
Nzenwa has 437 block assists for her career and looks to become the first player in school history to accumulate 500 or more block assists in a career. Nzenwa concluded the year with 174 block assists, which is the school’s all-time single-season record. Her 174 block assists in a single season ranks her eighth all-time on the SEC’s single-season block assists list.
Nzenwa’s .371 hitting percentage ranks fourth all-time in UK’s single-season hitting percentage chart and her career efficiency mark of .333 ranks third all-time on the school’s career hitting percentage list. She hit .341 in 2006, which is seventh all-time in single-season school annals, and now holds two of the school’s top 10 hitting efficiency marks.
