STANDISH, Maine – The Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference (ECAC) postseason volleyball honors have been announced and a pair of Saint Joseph's College players have earned accolades.
Senior middle blocker Felicia Wachowiak (Milton, N.H.) has claimed ECAC DIII New England First Team acclaim while freshman libero Jennelle Thompson (Farmington, N.H.) is listed on the Second Team.
Wachowiak, the 2015 Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) Offensive Player of the Year and three-time First Team All-GNAC honoree, collects regional honors after shattering the Monks' single-season records for kills (416), kills per set (3.61) and attack percentage (.337) while posting 128 blocks (80 solo) and 520 total points last fall. She led the conference in kills, kills per set, block solos, total blocks, blocks per set (1.11), points and points per set (4.5). This fall, Wachowiak earned GNAC Offensive Player of the Week honors five times and Defensive Player of the Week accolades on four occasions with a pair of ECAC DIII New England Offensive Player of the Week awards.
She closed out her collegiate career as the Monks' all-time leader in sets played (440), matches played (125), kills (1,353), kills per set (3.07), total attacks (3,176), block solos (294), block assists (174), total blocks (468), and blocks per set (1.06). Wachowiak also broke the GNAC career total blocks record this fall.
Thompson, the 2015 GNAC Defensive Player of the Year and First Team All-GNAC honoree, led the conference with 5.67 digs per set and 652 total digs en route to earning All-ECAC honors following her first collegiate campaign. She obliterated the Monks' single-season records and finished the season as the far and away GNAC leader for both categories, 1.38 per set and 163 total ahead of the second-ranked player in the conference. Thompson claimed three GNAC Rookie of the Week honors, two Defensive Player of the Week awards and a pair of ECAC DIII New England Rookie of the Week accolades last season.
Wachowiak and Thompson are the first SJC volleyball players to earn All-ECAC honors and are joined by Johnson & Wales freshman middle hitter Emily Kalmink as the only GNAC players to receive ECAC All-New England acclaim this fall.
Under the watch of sixth-year Head Coach Yamile Nolan in 2015, the SJC volleyball team registered one of the finest seasons ever recorded by a Saint Joseph's Athletics program, as the Monks tied the team's season victories record (27) and posted the highest winning percentage in program history (.818, 27-6), a mark that counts as the ninth-best success rate posted by any SJC team since 2000.
The 2015 team set new single-season records for kills (1,141) and assists (1,028) and tied the SJC mark for digs (2,117).
With an 8-3 record in GNAC play, the Monks earned the #3 seed in the conference tourney and rallied past #6 Simmons College, 3-2, on November 3rd, a victory that counts as the program's first postseason win in nine seasons as a GNAC member. Saint Joseph's traveled to #2 Johnson & Wales University for a semifinal match and, despite holding a lead late in each set, suffered a 3-0 defeat at the hands of the Wildcats, who went on to upset top-ranked Rivier University in the GNAC Championship two days later.
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Saint Joseph's College is Maine's only Catholic liberal arts college, providing a supportive, personalized and career-focused education for more than 100 years. From its 474-acre campus on the shores of Sebago Lake, the College offers more than 40 undergraduate programs to a population of approximately 1,000 students. Saint Joseph's College Online provides certificates, undergraduate and advanced degrees for working adults through an online learning program. For more, visit www.sjcme.edu.
