NCAA Women
December 22, 2023
For the third year in a row, a Texas Longhorn is the VolleyballMag.com national player of the year.
This year it’s junior Madisen Skinner, the outside hitter who was the Big 12 player of the year and then had a tremendous NCAA Tournament. Skinner is joined on our first team by Texas teammate Asjia O’Neal, the middle who was outstanding all season. Together they were a wrecking crew as the seventh-seeded Longhorns won last Sunday’s NCAA Division I Volleyball Championship in Tampa to give their school back-to-back titles.
Our All-American teams and top honors are presented by the Pro Volleyball Federation, which begins its inaugural season next month.
The three other semifinalists are represented on our first team. Nebraska has junior right side Merritt Beason and junior Lexi Rodriguez, Wisconsin has senior outside Sarah Franklin (who was the AVCA national player of the year), and Pittsburgh has Olivia Babock, our national freshman of the year.
Also receiving votes for player of the year, an award won the past two seasons by Logan Eggleston of Texas, were Franklin, Beason, Arizona State’s Marta Levinska, Jillian Gillen of Arkansas, Stanford’s Kendall Kipp, Louisville’s Anna DeBeer and USC’s Skylar Fields.
Babcock, also the AVCA…
