W&L's Guignon, GC's Ruehling Earn Special Awards

FOREST, Va. --- Randolph-Macon earned a pair of special honors for the second year in a row to lead the 2015 All-ODAC Volleyball Awards.  Yellow Jackets' outside hitter Courtney Lowers repeats as the ODAC Player of the Year, while R-MC mentor Bill Rogers enjoys his second straight ODAC Coach of the Year accolade.  Washington and Lee outside hitter Meg Guignon was tabbed the ODAC Rookie of the Year, while Guilford outside Kelsey Ruehling earned the ODAC/Virginia Farm Bureau Insurance Scholar-Athlete award.

Lowers, a senoir from Suffolk, Va., is the first back-to-back winner of the ODAC's top player award since former Yellow Jacket Raena Winton secured the honors in 2009 and 2010.  Following the ODAC title match, Lowers leads the ODAC at 4.40 kills and 5.0 points earned per set, racking up 431 winners overall to help her to 489.0 points, both third in the ODAC.  Her 1,396 career kills 26 outside of former teammate Mallory Carter in 10th place in the ODAC record books.  She cracked the 20-kill mark in five matches this season, including a pair of 26-kill efforts leading up to and in the ODAC Tournament, the latter coming in a 3-0 semifinal win over Roanoke.  She added a season-best 27 kills in the conference championship against Virginia Wesleyan.  Lowers has also racked up 302 digs, helping her to 16 double-doubles.  Her 63 total blocks rank 11th in the conference.

Rogers enjoys his fourth ODAC top coaching honor, adding this year's award to those earned in 2009, 2012 and 2013.  He's in the midst of his 14th season guiding the Yellow Jackets volleyball program, leading his squad to the top seed in the ODAC Tournament for the second time in the last three seasons after running thru its league slate with an 11-0 record.  R-MC is 24-7 overall entering the ODAC title match, increasing Rogers' career records to 319-129 (.712), including a 128-20 (.865) mark in league play.

Guignon, a freshman from St. Louis, Mo., stepped right into W&L's lineup as a potent outside weapon, ranking third on the squad and first among ODAC rookies with 254 kills despite missig the final week of the regular season and both of W&L's tournament matches.  Her 308 digs are also the most for any ODAC first year player this year.  She posted a season and career-best 16 kills at Shenandoah, adding 11 digs for one of seven double-doubles.  Her personal-best 23 digs came in a 3-2 win over Covenant early in the season.

Ruehling, a senior from Three Rivers, Calif., excels both on and off the court for the Quakers.  In the classroom, Ruehling boasts a 3.82 grade point average as a Biology and Environmental Studies double-major to go with a Chemistry minor.  A multi-honoree on the both the Guilford and ODAC academic lists, Ruehling earned a trio of major academic awards including the GC's Campbell Biology Scholarship, the Alden Academic Scholarship, and GlaxoSmithKline Women in Sciene Scholarship.  On the floor, Ruehling is fifth in the ODAC with 3.17 kills per set and 349.0 points.  Her 279 total kills are seventh, while her 55 aces are the second-most in the league, which translates into a conference-best 0.63 aces per set.

Listed below are the 2015 All-ODAC Volleyball Awards.  For more information, visit any of the participating schools' websites, or go to the ODAC's home on the Internet at www.odaconline.com.  Don't forget to become a fan of the ODAC on Facebook and follow @odacathletics on Twitter.

ALL-ODAC VOLLEYBALL AWARDS
Player of the Year: Courtney Lowers, Sr., Outside Hitter, Randolph-Macon
Coach of the Year: Bill Rogers, Randolph-Macon
Rookie of the Year: Meg Guignon, Fr., Outside Hitter, Washington and Lee
ODAC/Va. Farm Bureau Insurance Scholar-Athlete: Kelsey Ruehling, Sr., Outside Hitter, Guilford