Craig Skinner Coach of the Year, Leah Edmond Player of the Year in the region
LEXINGTON, Ky. – The American Volleyball Coaches’ Association announced its All-Region award winners on Tuesday afternoon with Kentucky’s Craig Skinner winning region coach of the year and senior outside hitter Leah Edmond winning the region player of the year. Additionally, Edmond, Madison Lilley, Gabby Curry, Leah Meyer and Alli Stumler were named to the 14-person all-region team.
By virtue of being named to the all-region team, all five players are now eligible to be named AVCA All-Americans when the announcement is made by the organization on Wednesday, Dec. 18.
For Skinner, it is his second year in a row winning AVCA Regional Coach of the Year honors. 2019 marks Edmond’s second-career AVCA Regional Player of the Year award, with her first coming in 2017. Last year, Lilley was the regional player of the year meaning UK has won the award for three years running.
Edmond, Lilley and Curry are all now multiple-year winners of the all-region selection, with Stumler winning for the first time after being named honorable mention a season ago. Edmond wins it for the fourth time in four years, Lilley has been selected for her third in three years and Curry for the second time in her three years as a Wildcat. For Meyer, it is her second time being named all-region as she was an AVCA All-East Coast Regional winner a season ago with Duke.
Kentucky will travel to Waco, Texas this weekend to compete in the NCAA Regionals. The Sweet 16 gets underway on Friday at 2:30 p.m. ET against No. 8 Washington with the winner advancing into Saturday’s regional final at 4 p.m. ET against the winner of Baylor and Purdue.
2019 AVCA All-Southeast Region Team
Leah Edmond, Kentucky
Madison Lilley, Kentucky
Gabby Curry, Kentucky
Leah Meyer, Kentucky
Alli Stumler, Kentucky
Dana Axner, FGCU
Kylie Deberg, Mizzou
Mehgan Donovan, Georgia
Thayer Hall, Florida
Rachael Kramer, Florida
McKenna Melville, UCF
Anett Nemeth, Coastal Carolina
Mikayla Robinson, South Carolina
Mikayla Shields, South Carolina
Player of the Year
Leah Edmond, Kentucky
Coach of the Year
Craig Skinner, Kentucky