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Virginia's Kirkwood Earns All-America Volleyball Honors
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Dec. 14, 2005
SAN ANTONIO – University of Virginia second-year outside hitter Sarah Kirkwood (Tampa, Fla./Plant) has been selected as a 2005 American Volleyball Coaches Association honorable mention All-American as announced Wednesday (Dec. 14) by the AVCA. Kirkwood is the third All-American in the 27-year history of the Virginia volleyball program. She became eligible for All-America consideration after earning AVCA First Team All-East Region honors earlier in December.
In addition to being the third player to receive All-America accolades, Kirkwood is the first sophomore to earn All-America honors for the Virginia volleyball team. UVa’s two previous honorable mention All-Americans, Whitney Ashcraft and Paige Davis, were seniors when they became Virginia’s first All-Americans in 2003.
Kirkwood was one of four sophomores to be named first-team All-East Region in 2005. She is also just the third Virginia volleyball player to capture All-Region honors twice. Kirkwood was recently named to the seven-member ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America Volleyball Second Team as selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA). Kirkwood, an Echols Interdisciplinary major, is the first UVa volleyball player to capture national Academic All-America honors.
In November, Kirkwood was named to the 10-member 2005 All-Atlantic Coast Conference First Team. She helped lead the Cavaliers to a 20-11 overall record and a 15-7 mark in ACC play. The 6-0 outside hitter had a spectacular 2005 season for UVa while playing in all 120 games over 31 matches. She became the first sophomore in ACC history to register 1,000 career kills. Kirkwood, who was named the ACC Player of the Week on October 10, has tallied 1,085 kills in two seasons and already stands seventh on UVa’s all-time kills list. She is the first Cavalier to total 500 kills in two different seasons.
In 2005, Kirkwood led the Cavaliers with 531 kills (4.43 per game) and in service aces with 69. Her average of 0.58 aces per game led the ACC and is 19th among all Division I players. The 69 aces are the third-highest single season mark in school history. Kirkwood set the school record for aces in a match with nine against Appalachian State on Sept. 16. She had a career best .296 hitting percentage, including .303 in conference play, and tallied 271 digs (2.26 per game). The 2004 ACC Freshman of the Year led the team with 13 double-doubles in kills and digs and registered double figures in kills in the final 30 matches of the 2005 season.
Twelve players were named to each of the AVCA All-America first, second and third teams, while 64 players garnered honorable mention accolades.