O'Connell Makes History With Player Of The Year Honor; Ivy Champs Place 5 On All-Ivy Team

Maggie O'Connell joined elite Princeton company while making her own piece of history during the 2017 Ivy League championship season, and she's hoping to cap it all with a memorable finish this postseason.

O'Connell was named the 2017 Ivy League Player of the Year by the league's head coaches, making her only the sixth Princeton player to ever win the award. She is only the second Princeton player to ever win both the Ivy League Rookie of the Year award and the Player of the Year award in her career (Parker Henritze '09 was the other), and she is the only Tiger volleyball player to ever win this award as an underclassman.

In fact, she is the first underclassman to win the Ivy League Player of the Year award since 2011 (Kendall Polan, Yale), and only the second in the last 15 years of Ivy League play.

O'Connell also leads a cast of five Tigers who earned All-Ivy League honors, which ties 2017 co-champion Yale with the most individual honorees. Those 10 players will be on the floor this weekend when Princeton and Yale meet at 7 pm in New Haven for the Ivy League's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament in a match that will be streamed free of charge on the Ivy League Network.

O'Connell was Princeton's lone first-team All-Ivy selection, while junior middles Caroline Sklaver and Nnenna Ibe joined sophomore setter Jessie Harris on the second team. Sophomore outside Devon Peterkin earned All-Ivy honorable mention.

O'Connell, coming off her 2016 Rookie of the Year season, was the only player in the Ivy League to rank in the Top 5 in both kills and points, as well as in the Top 10 in attack percentage. In her 14 Ivy matches, O'Connell averaged 3.24 kills and 3.60 points per set, and she did so while hitting .289.

The reigning Ivy League Player of the Week, O'Connell has played her best volleyball down the stretch. She has recorded six straight matches with double-digit kills, including an 18-kill performance at Harvard to clinch the Tigers' third straight Ivy League title.

"Maggie is such an important person for our team," head coach Sabrina King said. "She is a force at the net and is fearsome as an attacker and blocker. We counted on her so much this season, and she adapted well to the added pressure and volume of sets. I'm incredibly proud of Maggie, who is also an emotional leader for our team."

Harris, a second-team honoree in 2016 as well, led the Ivy League in assists for the full season, and she ranked second in assists in conference play. She also paced an offense that hit .273 for the Ivy season, which was 25 percentage points higher than any other team in the league. Princeton also led the Ivy League in kills and assists, a testament to Harris' consistency at the position.

Ibe is Princeton's lone three-year starter, and she is making her debut on the All-Ivy team after a strong conference season. She led the Ivy League in conference hitting percentage (.403), and she added 34 blocks in conference play. Ibe was named the Ivy League Player of the Week after one of the best performances of the season, a 17-kill, four-block effort in a win against Dartmouth, when Ibe hit .762 for the match.

Like Ibe, Sklaver is also making her All-Ivy debut. She ranked third in the Ivy League with a .341 attack percentage, and she led Princeton in blocks per set (.91). She was third in both kills (208) and service aces (13), and she was named the Ivy League Player of the Week after leading Princeton to a home sweep of both Columbia and Cornell.

Like classmates O'Connell and Harris, Peterkin also earns All-Ivy League honors for a second straight season. She overcame an early injury to record 136 kills, and she finished second on the team with 123 digs. Peterkin had nine kills and 11 digs in Princeton's 3-1 win at Yale, the program's first in New Haven since 2007.

"As a team I think every single player had an important role, and we stitched together an Ivy Championship by a true joint effort," King said. "Jessie, Nnenna, Caroline, and Devon all took turns being heroes for our team, and they are all deserving of All-Ivy recognition."

Check back Friday for a preview of Saturday's Ivy League playoff match at Yale.

PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Maggie O'Connell, Princeton (So., RS – Katy, Texas)

DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Kate Swanson, Yale (Jr., L – Rancho Santa Fe, Calif.)

ROOKIE OF THE YEAR
Kathryn Attar, Yale (Fr., OH – Tampa, Fla.)

COACH OF THE YEAR
Trudy Vande Berg, Cornell

FIRST TEAM ALL-IVY
* Anja Malesevic, Columbia (Sr., RS – Belgrade, Serbia)
* Maggie O'Connell, Princeton (So., RS – Katy, Texas)
Kathryn Attar, Yale (Fr., OH – Tampa, Fla.)
Chichi Ikwuazom, Columbia (So., MB – New York, N.Y.)
Christina Cornelius, Harvard (Jr., MB – Los Angeles, Calif.)
Kiley McPeek, Cornell (Sr., L – Deer Park, Ill.)
Kate Swanson, Yale (Jr., L – Rancho Santa Fe, Calif.)

SECOND TEAM ALL-IVY^
Grace Roberts-Burbank, Harvard (So., OH – San Francisco, Calif.)
Parker Jones, Penn (Fr., OH – Lafayette, Calif.)
Tristin Kott, Yale (So., OH – Winter Park, Fla.)
Jenna Phelps, Cornell (So., MB – Bucyrus, Kan.)
Caroline Sklaver, Princeton (Jr., MB – Miami Beach, Fla.)
Nnenna Ibe, Princeton (Jr., MB – North Brunswick, N.J.)
Jessie Harris, Princeton (So., S – Newport Beach, Calif.)
Franny Arnautou, Yale (So., S – San Francisco, Calif.)

HONORABLE MENTION ALL-IVY
Kit McCarty, Cornell (Sr., RS – Hudson, Ohio)
Devon Peterkin, Princeton (So., OH – San Diego, Calif.)
Kelley Wirth, Yale (Jr., OH – Moraga, Calif.)
Maclaine Fields, Harvard (So., MB – Alamo, Calif.)
Tori Dozier, Dartmouth (So., S – Raleigh, N.C.)
Sydney Morton, Penn (Sr., S – Atlanta, Ga.)
Melissa Cairo, Brown (Sr., L – Hillsborough, Calif.)

*Unanimous Selection
^Second Team Expanded Due To Tie In Voting

Calendar

Upcoming Events

Recent Results