Senior outside hitter Erin O’Connor and junior setter Katelyn Panzau were named to the 2006 all-Missouri Valley Conference First Team to lead a list four Missouri State volleyball players on all-conference teams. Jamie Adams earned a second-team nod and Shanda Harper was an all-freshmen selection.
O’Connor leads the Bears and ranks third in the Valley with 3.73 kills per game. The Coralville, Iowa, native is 10th in MSU history with 1,181 career kills and is seventh all-time with a 3.09 per game average. She owns a pair of 20-kill, 20-dig matches this year, and is the first Missouri State player to record more than one in a season since 1997.
Panzau continues the streak of Missouri State setters making the first team to four years in a row, earning the spot vacated by Ashley Warren. In her first year as a starter, Panzau is fifth in the league with 11.85 assists per game, but leads all setters and ranks ninth in the MVC with 1.12 blocks per game. She is also fifth in the MVC with 0.35 aces per game, and is one dig behind Sara Thomas for second on the team.
Adams ranks second on the team with 313 kills and a 2.90 per game average, and has been the Bears’ top attacker in terms of kill average in the second half of the season, bumping the pace to 3.51 kills per game over the last 16 matches. The junior is 18th in the league in kills per game average.
Harper earns a spot on the all-freshmen team after winning MVC Freshman of the Week six out of a possible 13 weeks during the regular season. The Willard, Mo., native is second in the MVC with a .300 hitting percentage, fourth with 1.33 blocks per game, and her 288 kills this season are the most for an MSU freshman since 2000.
The Bears open play at the State Farm MVC Tournament as the third seed Friday, Nov. 24, against No. 6 Evansville at 12:30 p.m. A victory earns a semifinal match against second-seeded Wichita State at 7:30 that night. The other side of the bracket includes No. 1 Northern Iowa, No. 4 Creighton and No. 5 Illinois State. The final from Redbird Arena in Normal, Ill., is set for 5 p.m. on Nov. 25.
