Men’s Volleyball: Trio earns All-American honors
UC Irvine senior libero Michael Brinkley, a three-peat honoree, leads an unprecedented three Anteaters named first-team All-American by the American Volleyball Coaches Assn.
Senior opposite Zack La Cavera and sophomore outside hitter Tamir Hershko have also been recognized after leading UCI (28-4) to the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation regular-season and tournament titles on its way to its sixth NCAA championship appearance.
Brinkley is the first UCI player, the 14th in AVCA history, to be a first-team honoree three times. He is only the second libero to be so recognized.
Brinkley, the NCAA active leader in career digs with 1,091, averages 2.95 per game.
La Cavera, the MPSF Player of the Year, leads UCI with 3.88 kill sand 4.69 points per set. The MPSF tournament’s most outstanding player, the 6-foot-4 La Cavera had a career-high 26 kills in the tournament final on Friday against Pepperdine. His previous career-best was 25 in a semifinal triumph over USC on Thursday.
He posted double-digit kills 26 times this season, including a current streak of 13 matches heading into the semifinals of the NCAA Championships on Thursday at Stanford University. He hit better than .400 in 13 contests and also leads all MPSF players with 43 aces.
Brinkley and La Cavera played on UCI’s NCAA champions in 2012 and 2013.
The 6-6 Hershko averages 3.55 kills and 4.12 points per set, second on the team, and owns a .354 hitting percentage, which ranks second among MPSF outside hitters. He had at least 10 kills in 25 matches.
Hershko was the MVP of the Outrigger Invitational and also received first-team All-MPSF honors.
No. 2-seeded UCI will face the winner of Tuesday’s play-in match between defending NCAA champion Loyola of Chicago and Pfeiffer. Thursday’s semifinal will be at 6 p.m. at Maples Pavilion.
The NCAA title match is scheduled Saturday at 6:30 p.m.
The three UCI All-Americans will receive their awards at the NCAA Championship banquet on Wednesday at Stanford.
— From staff reports