PRINCETON, N.J. - Before the 2023 Ivy League Tournament gets underway Friday in New Haven, Conn., the Ivy League has announced its volleyball All-Ivy teams and major award winners for the 2023 season.
Winning Ivy League Player of the Year was the conductor of the Yale attack, junior setter
Carly Diehl. Diehl led the league with 10.93 assists per set, totaling 503 assists across 46 sets played. She also was one of the top threats from the service line, serving 20 aces to average .43 aces per set. The San Deigo, Calif. native set new career-bests with 1.21 kills per set and 27 block assists.
Taking home Co-Defensive Player of the Year honors were Brown’s
Jessie Golden and Yale’s
Maile Somera. Golden, a libero from Tampa, Fla., led the Ivy League in both digs and digs/set, at 262 and 5.46, respectively while also chipping in 104 assists and 16 aces. Golden had a season-high 28 digs against George Mason and eclipsed 20 digs nine other times. In addition, Golden was consistently ranked fifth in the nation in digs per set. Somera compiled 195 digs in 44 sets played for an average of 4.43 digs per set and was a vital cog in the Bulldogs’ overall success on the court this season. Somera was third in the Ivy League with 25 aces but first with .57 aces per set. Somera twice posted 27 digs for her season high, her only two 20-plus dig matches of the season.
Princeton’s
Sydney Draper was named the 2023 Ivy League Rookie of the Year after admirably filling the shoes of departed 2022 Ivy League Player of the Year Lindsey Kelly. Draper was second in the league with 10.44 assists per set, posting the highest assist total in the Ivy League with 564 total assists across 54 sets. Draper was instrumental in Princeton’s second-place finish as she also ranked eighth in digs per set in the Ivy League, while also posting 24 aces and 44 kills. Her season-high for assists came against Penn where she dished out 61 assists in a five-setter back in September.
The 2023 Ivy League Coach of the Year went to Yale’s
Erin Appleman. A unanimous selection for her second consecutive Coach of the Year honors, Appleman led her Bulldog squad to an undefeated 14-0 Ivy League slate, becoming only the third Ivy League program all-time to sweep the double round-robin schedule. Yale won the regular season championship outright with its 14-0 conference record and a 19-3 overall record, winning their last 15 matches.
Four of the eight Ivy League members were represented on the All-Ivy First Team with both Yale and Brown placing three players on the squad. Aside from Diehl, Yale had a unanimous selection in senior outside hitter
Audrey Leak and junior outside hitter
Mila Yarich. Golden was joined by middle blocker
Beau Vanderlaan and setter
Cierra Jenkins. Harvard’s
Ashley Wang and Princeton’s
Lucia Scalamandre rounded out the All-Ivy First Team.
The All-Ivy Second Team also featured eight student-athletes coming from five institutions. Somera was joined by
Betsy Goodenow as Yale’s two All-Ivy Second Team representatives. Princeton and Harvard also had two honorees each with Draper and
Kamryn Chaney being Princeton’s representatives and
Ryleigh Patterson and
Katie Vorhies represented the Crimson. The final two Second-Team All-Ivy honorees were Brown’s
Kate Sheire and Cornell’s
Eliza Konvicka.
In addition to the All-Ivy teams, the Academic All-Ivy team was announced as Brown's
Kate Sheire, Columbia's
Annabel Happ, Cornell's
Sammie Engel, Dartmouth's
Natalie Grover, Harvard's
Nicole Prescott, Penn's
Emerson Flornes, Princeton's
Maya Satchell, and Yale's
Audrey Leak were all honored for their strong efforts on the court and in the classroom.
The 2023 Ivy League Volleyball Tournament will be hosted by top-seeded Yale this weekend in New Haven, Conn. The first match between No. 2 Princeton and No. 3 Brown is scheduled to start at 4 p.m. while No. 1 Yale and No. 4 Harvard will follow at 7 p.m.
2023 IVY LEAGUE VOLLEYBALL ALL-IVY
Player of the Year:
Carly Diehl, Yale (Jr., S – San Diego, Calif.)
Co-Defensive Player of the Year:
Jessie Golden, Brown (So., L/DS – Tampa, Fla.)
Co-Defensive Player of the Year:
Maile Somera, Yale (Sr., L – Barrington, R.I.)
Rookie of the Year:
Sydney Draper, Princeton (Fr., S – Mission Hills, Kansas)
Coach of the Year:
*Erin Appleman, Yale
FIRST TEAM^
Jessie Golden, Brown (So., L/DS – Tampa, Fla.)
Beau Vanderlaan, Brown (Jr., MB – Oak Park, Ill.)
Cierra Jenkins, Brown (Sr., S – Orlando, Fla.)
Ashley Wang, Harvard (Sr., S/H – Bolton, Mass.)
*Lucia Scalamandre, Princeton (So., MB – Topanga, Calif.)
*Audrey Leak, Yale (Sr., OH – Saddle River, N.J.)
*Carly Diehl, Yale (Jr., S – San Diego, Calif.)
Mila Yarich, Yale (Jr., OH – Tampa, Fla.)
SECOND TEAM^
Kate Sheire, Brown (Sr., RS – Arlington, Va.)
Eliza Konvicka, Cornell (So., OH/RS – Houston, Texas)
Ryleigh Patterson, Harvard (Fr., MB – Rancho Santa Fe, Calif.)
Katie Vorhies, Harvard (Sr., OH/RS – Ozark, Mo.)
Kamryn Chaney, Princeton (Fr., OH – Chicago, Ill.)
Sydney Draper, Princeton (Fr., S – Mission Hills, Kansas)
Betsy Goodenow, Yale (Fr., RS – Lenexa, Kansas)
Maile Somera, Yale (Sr., L – Barrington, R.I.)
HONORABLE MENTION
Amelia Gibbs, Dartmouth (Sr., MB – Palo Alto, Calif.)
Gigi Barr, Yale (Jr., MB – Elmhurst, Ill.)
*unanimous selection
^team expanded due to ties in voting