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Women's Volleyball:
Four Anteaters Earn All-Big West Honors
Nov. 24, 2009
IRVINE, Calif. --- Four UC Irvine women's volleyball players collected All-Big West honors as announced today by the conference office. Kari Pestolesi (Huntington Beach/Edison HS), Juliane Piggott (Newport Beach./UCLA) and Taryn Robertson (Valencia/HS) were voted to the all-conference first team while Kristin Winkler (Los Altos/St. Francis HS) was tabbed to the All-Freshman team. Is it the first time since 2003 that three Anteaters have been named first-team all-conference honorees. Pestolesi, who is ranked among the Big West leaders in aces (3rd), kills (4th), and digs (6th), earns her third first-team accolade. Nationally ranked in points (63rd), aces (65th) and kills (71st), Pestolesi tops the Anteaters with 415 kills on the season and is averaging 3.81 per set. She is also the team leader in aces with 41 and is second with 424 digs. The junior standout was voted a National Player of the Week earlier this season after helping the Anteaters upset then-No. 6 California. This season, she has collected three tournament MVP honors and dots both the UCI career and season records. Pestolesi has accumulated 22 double-double matches (kills/digs) with a season-best 23 kills against UConn and 26 digs against Seattle.
Piggott earns her initial first-team award after posting 348 kills and 195 digs for UCI. The outside hitter is 10th in the Big West in kill average at 3.19 and boasts a 3.53 per-set average in Big West contests. On the season Piggott is fourth in aces with 26 and is putting up 0.48 blocks per set to sit fourth on the team. Recently, the junior transfer posted a career-high 27 kills in the Big West title match against Long Beach State and picked up a season-high 16 digs twice against UC Davis and UC Santa Barbara. She has recorded six double-double matches this season and reached 20 or more digs twice.
Robertson also is a first-time, first-team honoree. The setter boasts an 11.02 assist average in conference matches to sit second in the Big West and is ranked 82nd nationally in assists at 10.23. Robertson had a season-best 63 assists and 14 digs, both against Long Beach State, while firing a career-high four aces in the win against Cal State Northridge. The senior knocked down a career-high 10 kills against Cal Poly and recorded a career-high .750 hitting percentage against Pacific after putting away nine of 12 attempts with no errors. Robertson, who is second in UCI's career records with 4,851, was honored on two tournament teams this year. Winkler was named to the All-Big West Freshman team after a strong first-year campaign as the Anteaters libero. Winkler has amassed 463 digs on the season, the fourth-best mark in the UCI season records. She sits third in the Big West with a 4.21 dig average and is second among the Anteaters with 28 aces. Winkler recorded a career-high 26 digs against UC Santa Barbara and has reached double-figure digs in all but five matches. Winkler is a two-time all-tournament selection for the Anteaters. UC Irvine, helmed by first-year head coach Paula Weishoff, finished tied for second in the Big West at 11-5. UCI, 22-7 overall, recorded the program's second-highest number of wins this season and travels to Long Beach State to take on TCU in the regular-season finale Saturday (Nov. 28) at 2:30 p.m. |
