Tarleton’s Hailey Roberts named National Player of the Year

Advertisement
Courtesy Tarleton Athletic Communications

Special to The Flash
TarletonSports.com

STEPHENVILLE (December 6, 2016) – Tarleton’s all-time kills leader. Three-time All-Conference. Five-time All-Region. Four-time All-American. Back-to-back D2CCA Regional Player of the Year.

And now, the Best Player in the Nation as voted on by the Division 2 Conference Commissioner’s Association.

Hailey Roberts‘ list of career accomplishments took another major step forward Tuesday morning when the junior outside hitter was named the 2016 Ron Lenz D2CCA National Player of the Year.

“I seriously never dreamed of receiving an award like this,” said Roberts. “There are so many tremendous players across the nation, this is an absolutely incredible honor and it means more than anyone could ever know. I don’t know what else to say. I’m speechless.

“Obviously, an award like this couldn’t happen without my teammates,” she said. “Without them pushing me to reach my fullest potential, an award like this couldn’t happen. So, to all of my teammates, I can’t say ‘thank you’ enough.”


Advertisement
Advertisement

Roberts has been a dominant force since stepping onto the court as a freshman in 2014.

In addition to all of her accolades, the Cedar Park native has led Tarleton into the national spotlight over the last three seasons. Roberts has guided the TexAnns to the 2014 LSC Tournament Championship, the 2015 LSC regular season title, and Tarleton’s first three trips to the NCAA regional tournament. Tarleton has won 78 games during Roberts’ three seasons in the purple and white and boast a winning percentage of .780 during her career.

Earlier this season, Roberts became the school’s all-time kills leader and currently has 1,845 kills in her career for an average of 5.01 kills per set. She has led the nation in kills and kills per set in each of the last two seasons. The junior captain also ranks in Tarleton’s Top-10 All-Time lists in several other statistical categories, including No. 1 in attack attempts (4,381); No. 4 in aces (161); and No. 5 in digs (1,150). She has 66 career double-doubles for the TexAnns and is one of three players in Tarleton’s history with over 1,000 kills (1,845) and 1,000 digs (1,150) in a career.

“I am so proud of her,” said Tarleton head coach Mary Schindler. “She will earn her share of accolades, and they are all well-deserved, but I am most impressed with the person that she is and continues to become. I know I will have a relationship with Hailey Roberts and celebrate even greater accomplishments long after she leaves Tarleton State University.”

Roberts also becomes the third Tarleton student-athlete to earn National Player of the Year recognition since 2014, joining women’s basketball player Kiara Wright (2014) and women’s golfer Isabel Jimenez-Perea (2015).

In addition to being named the National Player of the Year, Roberts also earned first-team all-America honors from the D2CCA for the second consecutive season, giving her four All-America awards in three years at Tarleton. She was a Daktronics third-team selection as a freshman before being named a first-team all-America honoree by D2CCA and the American Volleyball Coaches Association last year.

ABOUT THE D2CCA
The Division II Conference Com- missioners Association All-America Volleyball Team is sponsored by the Division II Conference Commissioners Association. The Division II Conference Commissioners Association encourages and promotes Division II athletics and high standards of sportsmanship as important elements of higher education. The CCA is a key communications link among the conferences as they discuss views, policies and regulations that impact Division II intercollegiate athletics and works closely with the NCAA as a communications channel to NCAA Division II member colleges and universities. The All-America Volleyball team is selected by the NCAA Division II members of the College Sports Information Directors of America (D2SIDA).

Be the first to comment

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.