University of Minnesota Athletics
VB: Three Minnesota Players Named AVCA All-Americans
12/15/2004 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
Bowman and Gentil become just the fourth and fifth players in school history to be name a First-Team All-American. It marks the first year in school history that the Golden Gophers have placed two players on the All-American team. Cassie Busse (2003), Katrien DeDecker (1996) and Jill Halsted (1981) are the only others players in school history that have been named First-Team All-Americans.
Gentil becomes the first player in school history to be named an AVCA All-American in three different years. She was named a Third-Team All- American in 2002, second team in 2003 and becomes the first libero in NCAA history to receive first-team honors.
Bowman received First-Team All-America honors as a sophomore, and is the first Golden Gopher setter to claim those honors.
Martin earned Honorable-Mention All-America honors to give Minnesota three All-Americans for the first time in school history.
Minnesota was also one of only three teams in the nation to have two First-Team All-Americans. The other two are National Semifinal opponent USC and Nebraska.
This season, Bowman is averaging 2.36 kills per game, 6.93 assists per game and 3.09 digs per game as one of the setters in Minnesota's 6-2 offense. She leads the nation in triple-doubles with nine on the season. In Big Ten Conference play, Bowman tied for the lead in hitting percentage at .361 (167- 45-338). Bowman is also second on Minnesota in assists, third in digs, fifth in kills and third in hitting percentage at .309. She was also named Co-Big Ten Player of the Week and AVCA National Player of the Week on Oct. 25.
Gentil enters the National Semifinals third in the nation in digs at 6.69. She is also first in the Big Ten, and was first in conference play at 6.81 dpg. This past week she broke the NCAA single-season digs record, and currently has 876. She also broke the 14-year old Big Ten career digs record, and is currently third in NCAA history in career digs with 2,106. Gentil has recorded double-figure digs in 35 of 36 matches this season, including setting the Big Ten single-match record for digs in a game with 47 against Penn State on Oct. 2.
She currently holds the Big Ten career, single-season and single- match digs record. Gentil is also third in the Big Ten in service aces per game, and was fifth in conference play. She leads Minnesota in both digs and service aces, and is third on the team in assists. This season she is helping Minnesota towards a team-record pace of 19.98 digs per game this season. That is 1.49 digs per game more then the record of 17.49, which was set last season. Gentil has been named to the Diet Coke Classic, NACWAA Classic, North Carolina and Wyoming All-Tournament teams this season. She is also a two-time Big Ten Player of the Week (Aug. 30, Sept. 27).
Martin enters the National Semifinals second in the Big Ten in kills per game at 5.03 kpg, and was third in conference play at 4.94 kpg. She enters the week third on the Minnesota single-season list in kills at 664, which is 15 away from Nicole Branagh for second place. Martin is currently fifth on the career list with 1,787. This season she has recorded double-figure kills in 34 of her 36 matches. Martin is also 22nd in the nation in kills as of Dec. 6.
In the past two seasons, Minnesota is 50-8 in matches that Martin has recorded double-figures. She is currently hitting a career-high .273 (664-211-1,656) from the outside hitter position for the season. Martin is fifth on single-season solo blocks list. The 54 solo blocks gives her 123 for her career, which is fourth on the Minnesota career list. This season, Martin has been named tournament MVP of the Diet Coke Classic, the North Carolina Tournament and the Wyoming Tournament. She was also named to the NACWAA All-Tournament team.
Minnesota will take on USC in the National Semifinals in Long Beach, Calif. on Thursday, Dec. 16 at approximately 9:30 p.m. (CT). The winner of the match will advance to the National Championship to play the winner of the Stanford-Washington match on Saturday, Dec. 18 at 3 p.m. (CT).