LEXINGTON, Ky. – After piling up eye-popping statistics in her first season at Mossy Creek, Carson-Newman's Julia Wheeler was named to the first-team American Volleyball Coaches Association All-Southeast Region roster announced on Wednesday.
The outside hitter is one of the three underclassmen in the region on the 14-player roster. Wheeler is the ninth player in program history to earn the laurel from the AVCA and first since Morgan Ballard was touted in 2018. She is the first outside hitter to take home the plaudit since Rachel Harper in 2014. All told she is the 11th player to be named all-region by a publication.
The second-team All-South Atlantic Conference selection put together one of the best seasons by an outside hitter in school history ranking ninth in the country with 433 total kills, one off of the top 10 for a single year in C-N history, sitting in third in the league with 3.46 kills per set. For the year, the Murfreesboro, Tenn. native posted 23 matches with at least 10 smashes including six with 20 or more. She has led the team in kills 21 times.
The two-time SAC Offensive Player of the Week has put her name in the record books with eye-popping performances. In a five-set loss at Union on Sept. 18, the Murfreesboro, Tenn. native finished with 25 kills hitting .240 adding 13 digs. It was the third time in the last decade that an Eagle produced 25-plus smashes and first since Molly Locke on Nov. 20, 2015 had 25 against Anderson, a span of 153 matches and 2,153 days prior.
Wheeler produced 27 kills on a .219 clip with 15 digs and two block assists on Oct. 12 against Mars Hill. The outside hitter reset her career high joining Molly Locke as the only players with two, 25-kill nights in the same season. The Murfreesboro, Tenn. native tied Locke for the second-most kills in a match since 2004 as Locke also had 27 against Quincy on Sept. 4. Carly Mozgai holds the program record for kills in a match with 29 in five sets on Nov. 12, 2010 against Catawba.
After crushing 26 balls on a .333 margin at Newberry in the next match, she finished with 23 blasts on a .367 percentage in a win at regular-season champion Anderson on Oct. 16 to become the first player in recorded history (since 2004) to achieve that mark. There had only been two occasions with back-to-back nights of 20 smashes with Kelli Sorensen producing 20 each against Wingate and Catawba on Oct. 8-9, 2004 and Rachel Harper having 21 apiece against Catawba and Queens on Oct. 4-5, 2013.
For the year, the outside hitter recorded 14 double-doubles tacking on 2.75 digs per set and 34 aces. With 1,309 attacks, a mark that is fifth on the program's single-season list, she is in the top 10 nationally in swings leading the Eagles in the area 26 times including in each of the final 15 matches of the year.
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