Waxahachie, Texas – November 11, 2016- The Sooner Athletic Conference (SAC) has announced its All-Conference volleyball teams for the 2016 season. Southwestern Assemblies of God University (SAGU) had five players receive recognition. Paulyae Dawkins made the 1 st team, Kali Shaw was named for the 2 nd team and Celi Bruce , Sophia Ivy and Summer SKillern were honorable mention.
A total of 49 student-athletes were selected on the three teams, 12 on the first team, 12 on the second team and 25 on the honorable mention list. Voting was done by the league’s nine volleyball coaches.
Paulyae Dawkins is a junior-transfer from Grand Prairie, Texas. For the season, Dawkins had 299 kills, averaging 2.58 kills per set. Dawkins hit 0.326 for the season, which ranks her no. 31 in the NAIA for hitting percentage. She also had 90 blocks for the season, 33 solo blocks and 57 assisted blocks.
“Paulyae had a great season. She has come in and learned a new system and has excelled greatly. Making a transition to a new university and playing a new role has been something she has embraced. Being selected first team all-conference is a great compliment from all of the coaches in our conference. I’m very proud of her,” says head coach Hank Moore .
Sophomore Kali Shaw was the SAC Freshman-of-the-Year in 2015. This year she led the conference in kills with 
468, averaging 3.9 kills per set. She ranked no. 18 in all the NAIA in total kills.
“I’m very proud of all our girls and how hard they worked this season,” says Moore, “I look forward to the off season as we began preparing for a big climb next year.”
SAGU ended the season 16-17. The Lady Lions had zero seniors on their roster and only four juniors.
SAC Player-of-the-Year honors went to Manon Soraru of Oklahoma City University. The junior middle blocker from Mulhouse, France won the same honor in 2014. This year she led the Stars to a perfect 18-0 conference record and have them ranked 12 th in the NAIA with a 28-3 overall mark. She leads the SAC in hitting percentage at .416 with 328 kills, 80 errors on 596 attempts.
Oklahoma City University collected three other individual awards with Sanja Vojnovic voted as the Setter-of-the-Year, Marijana Bjelobrk as the Freshman-of-the-Year and Kyle Steele as the Coach-of-the-Year for the second straight time.
Texas Wesleyan had the Newcomer-of-the-Year with Sasha Robinson while Wayland Baptist had the league’s best libero with Rossanna Ramos.
Southwestern Assemblies of God University is a private, Christian university located 30 minutes south of the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex in Waxahachie, Texas. The university was established in 1927, and now offers more than 70 associate, bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees on campus or online. More information is available at www.sagu.edu or by calling 1-888-YES-SAGU.
Contact: Natalie Tristan, SAGU SID, [email protected]
