Tillman Headlines 2022 Volleyball All-ACC Academic Team
January 31, 2023 | Women's Volleyball, Academic Services
This is the second straight year Tillman has won this award
GREENSBORO, N.C. (theACC.com) – Louisville's Amaya Tillman and Pitt's Serena Gray have been named the Atlantic Coast Conference Volleyball Scholar-Athletes of the Year for the second consecutive year and headline the sport's All-ACC Academic Team announced Tuesday.
Tillman is a graduate student at Louisville earning her Master of Education in Counseling and Personnel Services (M.Ed. CSP). The middle blocker from Topeka, Kansas, was named the ACC Defensive Player of the Year, a American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Third-Team All-American and earned AVCA East Regional First Team honors. Tillman helped lead Louisville to its second consecutive ACC Championship, back-to-back NCAA semifinal appearance and first ever appearance in the NCAA Championship in program history.
Tillman's 1.46 blocks per set and 166 total blocks led both the ACC and Louisville while ranking 12th nationally. She posted a season-best 10 blocks at Pitt during the regular season and registered 15 games with five or more blocks as Louisville led the conference and finished third in the nation in blocks with 354. Tillman added 244 kills hitting .333 with 19 aces for the Cardinals.
This is Tillman's fourth All-ACC Academic Team honor in as many seasons with the Cards, capping off the 2022 season as a NCAA Elite 90 Award Winner. She has made the Dean's List every semester at Louisville, has been named a three-time Dean's Scholar and Red & Black Scholar, and was tabbed to the ACC Honor Roll in 2020, 2021 and 2022.
Gray led Pitt to its fourth ACC Championship and a repeat appearance in the NCAA Semifinals in Pitt's seventh consecutive and 18th overall NCAA Tournament. She was First-Team All-ACC, an AVCA East Coast All-Region selection, a AVCA First-Team All-American and a VolleyballMag.com Fourth-Team All-American. Gray also earned CoSIDA Second Team Academic All-America honors – one of two Panthers ever to earn Academic All-American, AVCA All-American and All-Conference honors in the same season.
Gray started all 34 matches for Pitt while leading the Panthers on an 18-game winning streak – the longest in program history and what was the longest active streak in the NCAA. The Temple City, California, native ranked second in the ACC and No. 18 in the NCAA with a season hitting percentage of .396. Gray posted the fifth-most total blocks in the league with 131.
Syracuse's Polina Shemanova claimed All-ACC Academic Team honors for the fifth time in her career. Louisville's Aiko Jones and Florida State's Emma Clothier both earned their fourth All-ACC Academic Team Honors.
Twenty-one student-athletes who earned All-ACC honors this season also secured spots on the academic team, highlighted by season award winners Tillman and Raquel Lazaro (ACC Setter of the Year). Four student-athletes on the All-ACC Freshman Team earned All-ACC Academic Team honors.
All 15 ACC volleyball programs are represented on the All-ACC Academic Team with ACC Co-Champion Pitt leading the conference with 13 student-athletes, followed by Virginia with 12, Boston College with 11 and Duke, Louisville, Notre Dame and Virginia Tech with 10.
The ACC Scholar-Athlete of the Year awards were established in September of 2007 to be awarded annually to the top junior or senior student-athlete in their respective sports. Candidates for the awards must have maintained a 3.0-grade point average for their careers, as well as a 3.0 for each of the last two semesters.
Academic requirements for selection to the All-ACC Academic Team are a 3.0-grade point average for the previous semester and a 3.0 cumulative average during one's academic career. In addition, student-athletes must compete in at least 50 percent of their team's contests.
More about Amaya Tillman:
Amaya won the Elite 90 Award, an award that recognizes the true essence of the student-athlete by honoring the individual who has achieved the highest athletic and academic standard. She was named an AVCA Third-Team All-American honoree and an AVCA East Regional First-Team honoree. The ACC Defensive Player of the Year led the ACC in blocks with 166 blocks and played in 114 sets. She notched 244 kills hitting .333, 19 aces, and 43 blocks to earn 357.0 points for the Cardinals. An offensive threat as deadly as she is on defense, she recorded 11 double-double kill matches. She was also efficient, with 11 matches hitting over .500: (.643 vs. NKU 10-1-14), (.545 vs. Missouri 6-0-11), (.600 vs. Purdue 10-1-15), (.500 vs. Miami 7-1-12), (.579 vs. Boston College 11-0-19), (.526 vs. Virginia Tech 11-1-19), (.545 vs. UNC 7-1-11), (.556 vs. Pitt 6-1-9), (.500 vs. Notre Dame 11-1-20), (.625 vs. Samford 6-1-8), (.600 vs. Purdue 11-2-15).
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2022 ACC Volleyball Scholar-Athletes of the Year
Amaya Tillman****, Louisville, MB, Sport Administration
Serena Gray**, Pitt, MB, Applied Developmental Psychology
Louisville All-ACC Academic Selections
Ayden Bartlett, Louisville, Sustainability
Cara Cresse, Louisville, Undecided
Anna DeBeer***, Louisville, Exercise Science
Alexa Hendricks, Louisville, L/DS, Exercise Science
Aiko Jones****, Louisville, MS Communications
Raquel Lazaro, Louisville, S, MS Sport Administration
Nena Mbonu, Louisville, Business
Cecillia Rush, Louisville, Biology
Elena Scott**, Louisville, S, Undecided
Amaya Tillman, Louisville, MB, M. Ed CSP
