Minnesota Volleyball: Three Gophers Named AVCA All-Americans

The American Volleyball Coaches Associated named their 2017 All-Americans on Wednesday and three Minnesota Golden Gophers were honored. Gopher freshman outside hitter Stephanie Samedy was named a first Team All-American, junior setter Samantha Seliger-Swenson was named a 2nd team All-American, and sophomore outside hitter Alexis Hart was named a 3rd team All-American. Senior middle blocker Molly Lohman was named to the honorable mention team. With Samedy’s selection Minnesota is now just one of 13 programs in the nation who have had double digit first team All-Americans. Additionally with Samedy and hart being honored for thr first time, Minnesota is just the 11th program in the nation with more than 20 All-Americans overall.

Samedy is the first freshman in Gopher history to be named a first team All-American. Samedy was named the AVCA North Region Freshman of the Year and was a unanimous All-Big Ten selection. Samedy led the Gophers with 478 kills, averaging 4.05 kills per set and hit .303 on the season. Her 4.05 kills per set ranked second among Big Ten hitters. On defense, Samedy finished second on the Gophers in digs with 333 and digs per set with 2.82. This season Samedy was the ESPNW National Player of the Week once and the Big Ten and Freshman of the Week twice.

Seliger-Swenson was named an All-American for the third straight season. She was also named to the 2nd team in 2015 and was a 1st team selection in 2016. She is just the second Gopher to be named an All-American three straight seasons along with Paula Gentil from 2002-2004. Its also three years in a row that Triple S has been named to the All-North Region team and has been an All-Big Ten selection. Seliger-Swenson averaged 12.21 assists per set this season which ranked her second in the country and first in the Big Ten. Seliger-Swenson now has 4,416 career assists, which ranks seventh in school history. She is the only junior in Division I to register over 4,000 career assists. She was named the Big Ten Setter of the Week five times this past season.

Hart was named a third team All-American after garnering honorable mention honors a year ago. She finished the year with 446 kills, averaged 3.78 kills per set and hit .278. Hart was named the Big Ten Player of the Week once this year.

Lohman earned honorable mention honors after leading the Gophers in blocks with 15), blocks per set with 1.35 and aces with 35.

Minnesota will return all but Lohman next season as they try and find a way to get to the 2018 Final Four hosted at the Target Center.