CHICO, Calif. - Three players from the University of California San Diego women's volleyball team have earned postseason honors from the California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA). The conference announced its selections Wednesday, the day before its tournament kicks off.
Outside hitter Trinity Castaneda and middle blocker Jessica Rieble were selected to the All-CCAA First Team, while setter Isabela Dobra was named to the All-CCAA Second Team. In addition, Castaneda was tabbed the league's Newcomer of the Year and Dobra was crowned the Setter of the Year.
Castaneda is in her first season with the Tritons after transferring from Hawai'i. She is averaging 2.7 points and 2.4 kills per set, third on the team. The sophomore has totaled at least 10 kills in each of her last nine outings.
Castaneda is the first ever Newcomer of the Year from UC San Diego. The award was first handed out in 2006.
Rieble has been a force for the Tritons all season, leading the team in points per set (3.5), kills per set (2.6), hitting percentage (.417), and blocks per set (1.2). Currently, the senior ranks fourth nationally in hitting percentage. Among all CCAA players in league matches, Rieble is third in points per set (3.8) and hitting percentage (.420) and fourth in blocks per set (1.2) She has been named the CCAA Player of the Week three times this season and garnered AVCA National Player of the Week accolades in October, the program's first national weekly honor since UC San Diego moved to the NCAA Division II ranks in 2000.
Dobra also made her debut for the Tritons this year after transferring from Tyler Junior College. The junior is averaging 9.7 assists per set and has paced UC San Diego to a .234 hitting percentage. Among CCAA players, she ranks third in assists per set (9.7) and eighth in aces per set (0.4). The Tritons are hitting .239 in CCAA contests, the fourth highest in the 13 team league. Dobra has recorded a team best five double-doubles.
Dobra is the first Setter of the Year from UC San Diego since the award was established in 2014.
UC San Diego, which finished its regular season at 18-7 with a 12-5 CCAA mark, is set for the eight team conference tournament, which runs Nov. 21-23 at Cal State San Bernardino's Coussoulis Arena. As the third seed, the Tritons face off against sixth seeded Sonoma State in a quarterfinal Thursday at noon. The winner of that match will play either No. 2 Cal State LA or No. 7 San Francisco State in a semifinal on Friday at 5 p.m. The championship match is slated for Saturday at 7 p.m. and the victor earns an automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament.
UC San Diego is receiving votes in the latest AVCA national poll, which was released on Nov. 18.
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About UC San Diego Athletics
With 30 national team championships, nearly 150 individual titles, and the top student-athlete graduation rate among Division II institutions in the United States, the UC San Diego intercollegiate athletics program annually ranks as one of the most successful in the country. The Tritons sponsor 23 intercollegiate sport programs that compete on the NCAA Division I and II levels and, in the summer of 2020, begin a four-year transition into full Division I status as a member of the Big West Conference. UC San Diego scholar-athletes exemplify the academic ideals of one of the world's pre-eminent institutions, graduating at an average rate of 91 percent. A total of 82 Tritons have earned Academic All-America honors, while 37 have earned prestigious NCAA Post-Graduate Scholarships. In competition, almost 1,400 UC San Diego scholar-athletes have earned All-America honors.
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