Big West All Conference Release
FULLERTON, Calif. - Cal State Fullerton junior middle blocker Holland Crenshaw and freshman outside hitter Niki Withers earned Big West Conference Honorable Mention and All-Freshman Team honors respectively, the conference announced Monday.
Crenshaw earned her first selection to the Big West Conference Honorable Mention and marked the third straight season the Titans had at least one player named honorable mention. Withers' selection to the All-Freshman team also marks the third straight season the Titans have had a player earn that honor with Lauren Kissell (2012) and McKenna Painton (2013) garnering the honor that past two years.
Long Beach State, the 2014 Big West Conference champion, swept the three major awards as Jenelle Hudson (Player of the Year), Ashley Murray (Freshman of the Year) and Brian Gimmilarro (Coach of the Year) took home the top prizes. The 49ers also led the conference with five selections to the first team followed by Hawai'i with four with CSUN and UC Irvine each receiving three selections.
Crenshaw led the Titans in hitting percentage in 2014, tallying 276 kills with a team-low 75 errors (minimum 300 attempts) in 659 attempts. Her .305 hitting percentage also ranked seventh in the Big West Conference and also ranks as the ninth best single-season mark in Titans history, placing her in between Brittany Moore's 2005 season mark of .310 and 2006 clip of .300.
This season, Crenshaw set a new career high in kills, service aces and attack attempts. The Santa Barbara, Calif. native blasted down 18 kills twice in 2014 to set a new career best. She set the mark with initially with an 18-kill performance against Villanova on Sept. 6, hitting at a .385 clip (18-3-39) in the process. The 39 attempts in the match also set a new career best. Crenshaw would match those numbers less than a week later, blasting down 18 kills on a .438 clip (18-4-32) in the Titans four-set victory over Stetson on Sept. 12.
As for Withers, the freshman led the team offensively as she hammered down 417 kills in 106 sets played, averaging 3.93 kills per set. Her 417 kills ranked second in the conference and 81st in the nation while her per-set average placed her third in the Big West and 56th in the country. She was also the first Titans player to tally 400-plus kills since Kayla Neto (541) and Bre Moreland (417) did so in 2012.
She was named the Big West Conference Freshman Player of the Week three times during the year including consecutive nods in the first two weeks of the season. Withers blasted a career-high 28 kills on Nov. 22 against UC Irvine at Titan Gym on a career-high 70 attempts. Overall, Withers had six performances of 20-plus kills including three occasions of 25 kills or more.
The Lakewood, Calif. native also tallied double-digit kills in 12 straight matches to end the season and recorded double figures in 26 of 28 matches for the Titans this year. On Nov. 15, Withers set a new benchmark for herself as she blasted 22 kills in a win over UC Riverside, hitting at a .400 clip (22-6-40), her best of the season.
