With the regular season ending in under a month, most teams have played somewhere in the vicinity of 20 matches. We’ve seen many familiar faces continue to perform at a high level, while others have stepped up into an elevated role or are making their mark as a freshman. Based on match outcomes and statistics, I’ve put together my predictions for post-season honors, beginning with the Big Ten.

Individual Awards

Let’s start with the individual awards. Assuming these are the same as last year, I’ve made my predictions for Player of the Year, Setter of the Year, Libero of the Year, and Coach of the Year.

Big Ten Player of the Year: Mimi Colyer, Wisconsin

If Player of the Year goes to a hitter, I’m expecting it to go to Mimi Colyer over Kennedy Martin. Despite Colyer having fewer points per set (not that 5.83 is anything to sneeze at, but Martin’s 6.06 leads the conference), she has a slightly higher hitting percentage and, more importantly, a more successful team. If Penn State lived up to its pre-season hype, Kennedy Martin would almost certainly have the conference’s Player of the Year award in the bag, but the team’s lukewarm record may just be the thing that holds her back. I wouldn’t balk at the choice to give it to Martin anyway, considering she is almost single-handedly responsible for the wins that Penn State does have, but I see Colyer as the more natural choice.

Other players that I could see winning Player of the Year would be Bergen Reilly or Harper Murray. Reilly feels like the most obvious choice if a non-hitting position is selected; she orchestrates the country’s most efficient offense (more on this in the Setter of the Year section) and her all-around game is arguably the best of any setter in the country. If not Reilly, then I can easily see her teammate Harper Murray earning the award due to her all-around skill. While her hitting numbers (3.7 per set) are lower than Colyer’s due to Nebraska’s offense being more balanced than Wisconsin’s, she performs every single skill extremely well, from passing to blocking to serving. 

Big Ten Freshman of the Year: Alanah Clemente, Oregon

Unlike with most top-performing freshmen, Clemente had virtually no hype (at least not that I noticed) coming into the season. But at only 17, she has been an absolute force who could very well become one of the best players in the country in the next few years. She leads Oregon in points per set with 4.32, thanks not only to her impressive swing mechanics but also her powerful serving (she has 36 aces on the season to-date).

While I could see this award going to one of the impressive first-year setters in the Big Ten (Indiana’s Kričković and USC’s Messer come to mind) or a promising hitter like Indiana’s Jaidyn Jager, if I were the one making the call, it’d absolutely go to Clemente.

Big Ten Setter of the Year: Bergen Reilly, Nebraska

This award is the easiest to predict, because there really is no competition approaching the same level as Reilly. Don’t get me wrong—USC’s Reese Messer and Indiana’s Teodora Kričković are performing well, especially for true freshmen, and if Charlie Fuerbringer comes back from injury before the season is over, she’ll likely be second in line. But Reilly is simply head and shoulders above anyone else; not only does she perform each skill well, but she has led Nebraska to a nation-leading .339 hitting efficiency, which is well above the next highest team efficiency of .307.

Six of Nebraska’s hitters have two or more kills per set, which speaks to Reilly’s ability to connect well with whichever players end up starting as well as her ability to balance the offense. She’s also become quite a threat of her own, as she seemingly has a sixth sense for detecting when the opposing team’s defense is unprepared for her to send the ball over on the second contact no matter how many times she does it. Given all of this, I’m sending my preemptive congratulations Reilly’s way for winning this award three years in a row.

Big Ten Libero of the Year: Lola Schumacher, UCLA

This is the award I am the least sure about, so I went with the player leading the conference in digs per set. While UCLA’s record hasn’t exactly lived up to the hype generated by its transfer portal acquisitions in the off-season, Schumacher has been extremely steady in the back row. She’s averaging 4.27 digs per set, has been solid in the passing lineup, and has registered double-digit digs in all but one match this season. If the award doesn’t go her way, then I could see Washington’s Zoria Heard receiving it, as she is second in the conference for digs per set with 3.91, and has contributed 19 aces on the season as well.

Big Ten Coach of the Year: Dave Shondell

While I can easily see (and would support) this award going to Nebraska’s Dani Busboom Kelly, especially if Nebraska goes undefeated for the remainder of the regular season, I personally think Shondell is most deserving given what he’s been able to do with Purdue even after losing the majority of his offensive production to the portal or graduation. I was one of many NCAA viewers who was expecting Purdue to make a major hit in the standings and rankings, but Purdue is arguably having a better season than it did last year, even with Eva Hudson and Chloe Chicoine playing at other programs. At the time of writing this, the Boilermakers are ranked ninth and are in second place in the Big Ten standings. Seven of the team’s matches—just under a third of the 22 they’ve played—have gone to five sets, and Purdue has won all of them. The tenacity to continue close out in tough situations like that speaks volumes not only for the players, but also of the strategy and guidance provided by Shondell.

All-Conference Teams

Moving onto what was equally fun and daunting: compiling the first-, second- and all-freshman squads to be honored. 

Last year, the Big Ten had a whopping 25 players on the First Team and an additional 16 on the Second Team. Nine freshmen received All-Freshman Team honors, three of whom were also included on a First- or Second-Team. I tried to stay relatively close to these numbers as I made my own predictions.

If I had to estimate, I’d say that I’m probably in the 80-90% correct range on these lists. It’s impossible to imagine a good chunk of these players not being recognized, but there are some that I could see being held back because of team performance, or others that could be elevated in spite of it. Please note that all lists are presented in alphabetical order by school name then first name of each player.

First Team All-Big Ten

1. Avry Tatum, OPP, Indiana
2. Candela Alonso-Corcelles, OH, Indiana
3. Allison Jacobs, OH, Michigan
4. Serena Nyambio, MB, Michigan
5. Julia Hanson, OH, Minnesota
6. Andi Jackson, MB, Nebraska
7. Bergen Reilly, S, Nebraska
8. Harper Murray, OH, Nebraska
9. Rebekah Allick, MB, Nebraska
10. Alanah Clemente, OPP, Oregon
11. Kennedy Martin, OPP, Penn State
12. Grace Heaney, OPP, Purdue
13. Kenna Wollard, OH, Purdue
14. Taylor Anderson, S, Purdue
15. Cheridyn Leverette, OH, UCLA
16. Lola Schumacher, L, UCLA
17. Marianna Singletary, MB, UCLA
18. London Wijay, OH, USC
19. Zoria Heard, L, Washington
20. Mimi Colyer, OH, Wisconsin

Building the First Team was the easiest exercise of the three teams. It’s likely that some of these players will end up on the Second Team instead of First, but I can’t imagine anyone here being excluded altogether from a post-season team. I expect many of these players to receive a placement on one of the three All-American teams as well.

Second Team All-Big Ten

1. Taylor de Boer, OH, Illinois
2. Jaidyn Jager, OH, Indiana
3. Teodora Kričković, S, Indiana
4. Claire Ammeraal, S, Iowa
5. Hannah Whittingstall, MB, Iowa
6. Ajack Malual, OPP, Maryland
7. Jenna Hanes, MB, Michigan
8. Zuzanna Kulig, MB, Michigan State
9. Stella Swenson, S, Minnesota
10. Ayah Elnady, OH, Northwestern
11. Rylen Reid, OH, Northwestern
12. Maggie Mendelson, MB, Penn State
13. Ryan McAleer, L, Purdue
14. Leah Ford, MB, USC
15. Kierstyn Barton, OH, Washington
16. Carter Booth, MB, Wisconsin
17. Kristen Simon, L, Wisconsin
18. Una Vajagic, OH, Wisconsin

I went back and forth on whether to include certain players or not and ultimately landed here. Based on team results, I could see only one of the players I selected from Iowa or Northwestern making the list. I also could not decide what to do about Nebraska’s liberos; both are excellent players, but swapping the libero jersey on and off has resulted in both of their digs per set stats being squarely Fine (Olivia Mauch has 2.63, Laney Choboy has 2.6). Both of them being left off the actual list is probably unlikely, but I’m okay with my list being “wrong” in that respect.

All-Freshman Team

1. Jaidyn Jager, OH, Indiana
2. Teodora Kričković, S, Indiana
3. Jordan Taylor, MB, Minnesota
4. Stella Swenson, S, Minnesota
5. Carly Gilk, OPP, Minnesota
6. Alanah Clemente, Oregon
7. Abigail Mullen, OPP, USC
8. Reese Messer, S, USC
9. Simona Mateska, OH, Washington
10. Kristen Simon, L, Wisconsin

Surprisingly, the list of freshmen was the most difficult to narrow down. Last year’s list had nine players, so I tried not to exceed that number by too much and landed at ten, even though I feel there’s been an increase in the number of impactful freshmen this year. All freshmen who I selected as a First- or Second-teamer are, of course, also represented on the All-Freshman team.

I’m doubtful that the actual list will end up featuring all three of the selected freshmen from Minnesota, but both Gilk and Taylor have both stepped up immensely in the face of Minnesota’s season-ending injuries and have more-than-respectable numbers considering the circumstances, so I felt compelled to include them alongside Swenson, who is setting the team to an efficiency of .276.

The most glaring omission is probably Nebraska’s Virginia Adriano, but when I looked at the stats, I just couldn’t justify including her. Given that she doesn’t play all six rotations, her dig numbers are quite low (.59 per set), and of the freshman pin hitters I evaluated, her points per set came out to be the lowest (2.53 per set). While this can be attributed, in part, to the balance of Nebraska’s offense, I couldn’t bring myself to put her over any of the other freshmen listed.