Big Ten Announces 2024 Volleyball Postseason Honors

2024 BIG TEN VOLLEYBALL POSTSEASON HONORS

ROSEMONT, Ill. - The Big Ten Conference announced the 2024 Volleyball All-Big Ten Teams and individual honors on Wednesday, as chosen by a vote of the conference’s 18 head coaches. Wisconsin graduate student and outside hitter Sarah Franklin was selected as Player of the Year, while Nebraska’s Lexi Rodriguez was named Libero of the Year (voted to replace Defensive Player of the Year) and Bergen Reilly earned Setter of the Year. Penn State’s Izzy Starck was named Freshman of the Year and Katie Schumacher-Cawley was named Coach of the Year by both the coaches and media.  

Franklin was named Big Ten Player of the Year for the second consecutive season after receiving both Big Ten and National Player of the Year honors a season ago. Franklin, a 2024 AVCA Player of the Year semifinalist, led the Badgers offensively throughout the regular season, averaging 4.48 kills/set behind 470 total kills with a .295 hitting percentage. Notably, Franklin set a new Wisconsin program record for most kills in a single match with 33 kills vs. Marquette on Sept. 17. In the same match, Franklin recorded her 1,500^th career kill. Franklin and the Badgers were selected to the NCAA Tournament for the 12^th straight season and will face Fairfield in the first round of the postseason on Thursday.  

It's the third individual honor of Rodriguez’s career, earning Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year in 2021 and 2023. Rodriguez is also a three-time All-American and has guided the Husker back row with 3.80 digs per set throughout the regular season, helping Nebraska to its second consecutive Big Ten Championship. Rodriguez recently passed Kayla Banwarth for No. 2 all-time in career digs at Nebraska. She now has 1,819 career digs and is chasing only Justine Wong-Orantes (1,890) to become the all-time digs leader in Nebraska program history.  

Reilly earns her second-straight Setter of the Year honor after guiding the Husker attack to an efficient .288 hitting percentage, which ranks 11^th nationally. Reilly is the first Nebraska setter to earn the honor in back-to-back seasons and was selected as the conference’s setter of the week five times this season. Reilly leads the Big Ten averaging 11.12 assists per set and ranks 8^th nationally in this category.  

Starck guided the Nittany Lions to their first Big Ten title since 2017 and was named Big Ten Setter of the Week five times in addition to being named the Big Ten Freshman of the Week six times. She is the 14^th Penn State player to be named Freshman of the Year and the first since Jonni Parker in 2017.  Starck is 11^th nationally, averaging 11.05 assists per set, guiding a Penn State attack that is 14^th in the country with a .282 hitting percentage.  

Schumacher-Cawley led Penn State to a 29-2 overall record and a 19-1 mark in Big Ten play, capping the regular season with a 3-1 win over No. 2 Nebraska to earn a share of the Big Ten Championship. Penn State’s 29 wins are the most in a single season since finishing 33-2 in 2017. The Nittany Lions were within the top 7 of the AVCA rankings each week throughout the regular season, peaking at No. 2 (one first-place vote) in the Dec. 2 poll.    

Franklin, Rodriguez, Reilly and Starck were each recognized on the All-Big Ten First Team. Franklin and Rodriguez, along with Illinois’ Rainy Terry, Minnesota’s Julia Hanson, Nebraska’s Andi Jackson, Oregon’s Mimi Colyer and Penn State’s Jess Mruzik were unanimous first-team selections.  

The Big Ten also recognized nine All-Freshman honorees and 18 Sportsmanship Award honorees. The student-athletes chosen for the sportsmanship award are individuals who have distinguished themselves through sportsmanship and ethical behavior. These student-athletes must also be in good academic standing and have demonstrated good citizenship outside of the sports-competition setting.  

The complete list of the 2024 Postseason Awards can be found above.