DENVER – University of Hawai'i men's volleyball players Jonas Umlauft and Joshua Walker were named to the American Volleyball Coaches Association All-America teams announced today. Umlauft was selected as the AVCA's Newcomer of the Year and a first-team All-American while Walker was named to the second team.

 

Umlauft, a freshman from Stadtbergen, Germany, was recently awarded as the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Freshman of the Year. He joins elite company along with former Warriors Yuval Katz (1995) and Costas Theocharidis (2000) as the only players to receive the AVCA's top newcomer award.

 

This season, the 6-foot-9 opposite currently leads the league with a 5.29 kills per set average. In last week's MPSF Tournament quarterfinal match against Pepperdine, he had a match-high 36 kills, one off his school rally-scoring record of 37 set against UC Irvine earlier this season. He has reached double-figures in kills in all 28 matches and has 13 20-plus kill matches.

 

Walker, a junior outside hitter from Virginia Beach, Va., became the program's 12^th member of the 1,000-kill club earlier this season and was named to the all-MPSF third team last week. He is averaging a career-best 4.30 kills per set, second-best on the team and ranks eighth in the MPSF. He has 24 double-figure kill matches and eight 20-kill matches, including a career-high 28 against Long Beach State in March.

 

This year's All-America awards ends a streak of three seasons without a UH player being recognized. In 2006, Brian Beckwith and Lauri Hakala were named to the first team and Matt Carere and Alfred Reft were selected to the second team.

 

The AVCA Player of the Year will be announced next week prior to the NCAA Championships. The Warriors are currently competing in the MPSF Championship semifinals, where they will face top-seeded and host Stanford, Thursday.