Jennings-Calkins named to Preseason All-RMAC team
Grizzlies picked fourth, ninth
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.— Adams State College senior Darcy Jennings-Calkins (Lakin, Kan.) has been named to the 7-player Preseason All-Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference team while she and her Grizzly teammates have been picked to finish fourth in the West Division and ninth overall in the league’s annual preseason coaches’ poll, announced Monday by conference officials.
Jennings-Calkins, a 6-foot-1 middle hitter, has earned All-RMAC honors after each of the past three seasons picking up second team accolades in 2007 and 2008 after finishing honorable mention accolades as a redshirt freshman in 2006.
She was married this summer and enters the 2009 campaign as the Grizzlies’ only senior.
Jennings-Calkins led the RMAC in blocking last season with 118, a 1.04 per set average, and broke ASC Hall of Famer Keri Abbott’s NCAA Division II era (1992-Present) school record for career blocks last year.
Jennings-Calkins now has 362 but still trails Abbott’s overall school record of 653, which includes her totals from two seasons at the NAIA level.
Jennings-Calkins, who has three straight 100-block seasons, also hit a team best .311 last season ranking third in the RMAC in that category. She earned four total RMAC Player of the Week honors last season and also finished second on the team in kills (294), service aces (22) and total points (382.5) a year ago.
As a team, the Grizzlies received 99 points in the balloting of the RMAC’s 14 head coaches, who were asked to rank the teams in the RMAC 1 through 13 without voting for their own squad. They finished fourth in the West Division and eighth overall in 2008.
Nebraska-Kearney, gunning for a sixth straight RMAC regular season title, received 12 first place votes and finished first in the poll with 14 total points. The Grizzlies defeated the Lopers for the first time in school history last year knocking them out of the RMAC Tournament in the quarterfinal round.
Metro State received the other two first place votes and took the second spot in both the East Division and overall with 32 points. Regis and Colorado Mines, also hailing from the East Division, finished third and fourth in the poll with 52 and 59 points, respectively.
Western New Mexico was the top team from the West Division and fifth overall with 61 points while other West Division representatives Fort Lewis and Mesa State were sixth and seventh with 69 and 71 points, respectively.
UC-Colorado Springs was fifth in the East Division and eighth overall with 97 points just ahead of the Grizzlies.
Western State was picked fifth in the West Division and 10th overall with 126 points while Colorado State-Pueblo was next in the pecking order with 137 points.
Chadron State was picked sixth in the East Division and 12th overall with 144 points while New Mexico Highlands and Colorado Christian, round out the poll with 156 and 158 points, respectively.
Joining Jennings-Calkins on the Preseason All-RMAC team, were Fort Lewis junior outside hitter Chelsea Flaming, Regis junior outside hitter Jessica Howe, Metro State sophomore outside hitter Bri Morley, Colorado Mines junior outside hitter Elizabeth Serra-Hsu and Nebraska-Kearney middle hitters Nikki Scott and Jeri Walkowiak.
Walkowiak, a 5-foot-11 junior, was named as the Preseason Player of the Year. She and Howe were the only two unanimous selections to the Preseason All-RMAC team.
Metro State senior libero Amy Watanabe was named as the RMAC’s Preseason Defensive Player of the Year while Nebraska-Kearney junior Cola Svec was tabbed as the RMAC’s Preseason Setter of the Year for the second straight season.
The Grizzlies will host former ASC greats in their second annual Alumni Match on Saturday at 6 p.m. in Plachy Hall and then begin the regular season at the Holiday Inn/Colorado Mines Oredigger Classic on Aug. 28 and 29 in Golden.
Related Item: Complete RMAC Release
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