Rebel Volleyballers Earn All-Region Honors

Ole Miss junior Nakeyta Clair (Country Club Hills, Illinois) and sophomore Aubrey Edie (Fayetteville, Arkansas) were both honored for their outstanding seasons by the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Tuesday.  Clair made the All-South Region Team, while Edie earned All-South Region Honorable Mention honors.

Clair becomes the first player to be named to the All-Region Team since former All-American Regina Thomas earned the honor in 2011. Two weeks ago, Clair was named to the All-SEC Team.
“You look at the record books, and their names are at the top,” head coach Steven McRoberts said. It’s exciting that they are both coming back. We’re very proud as a program, to have players get awards like this. Hopefully it will not only motivate them to come back and have another great year and want to do better, but also motivate other players who have the same talent to step it up and have years where they’ll be considered for these awards.”
Both Clair and Edie helped lead Ole Miss to the best start in school history (14-0), the most wins since the 2007 season (22-10) and tied for the most home wins in program history (12-4). The Rebels also posted a school-record team hitting percentage in a season (.254).
Clair finished the season ranked second in the SEC in hitting percentage (.405), sixth in kills per set (3.39), 12th in blocks per set (0.94) and sixth in points per set (4.03). She set the school single-season record for kills with 366 and moved into eighth all-time at Ole Miss.  Clair’s attack percentage ranks as the second best in a season, and she will go into her senior season second all-time with a career .335 percentage. With 101 total blocks this year, Clair became the second player in the rally scoring era to record 300 total blocks. She currently has 315 blocks and will head into her final season needing 69 to set the career record.
“Nakeyta had a dominating year in the middle, hitting over .400 and breaking the season record in kills,” McRoberts said. “She was a key for us in so many ways. There were matches we won not only because of how well she played, but because she drew the middle blocker from the other team and allowed our pins to have some success. Sometimes that doesn’t get seen by the untrained eye.”
Edie set the single-season record for assists with 1,322.  Her career total of 2,271 ranks her third all-time. She owns the top three matches in school history, including a career-best 62 at Mississippi State to help the Rebels sweep the season series.
“Aubrey did a great job of getting all of our hitters involved in the offense,” McRoberts said. “We had a lot of players set records and as a team hit 40 points higher than any other Ole Miss team in history.
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Courtesy of Ole Miss Sports Information