SUWANEE, Ga. -- Trinity University senior Ashley Farrimond was a near unanimous choice for 2004 Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC) Player-of-the-Year in exclusive all-conference voting by the league's head coaches. In the same voting, Sarah Burger of Centre College was selected as the SCAC Freshman-of-the-Year - the second consecutive year that a Centre player has received the award.

For the first time, the coaches selected a Backrow Player-of-the-Year, and Maggie Chang of Trinity and Amanda Swanstrom of Rhodes College both received three votes to share the award. The voting was also split among the same two schools for Coach-of-the-Year with Trinity's Julie Jenkins and Rhodes' Sam Lambert sharing the honor.

Farrimond, a setter from Garden Ridge, Texas who was the league's player of the year as a sophomore, is Trinity's 11th Player-of-the-Year selection in 14 years of SCAC volleyball. She is just the third player in conference history to win the award twice.

An All-South Region and All-America performer in her first three seasons with the Tigers, Farrimond accumulated 5,297 career assists to rank second in school history and third all-time on the SCAC charts. She is a four-time First Team All-SCAC selection, and in her career, Trinity has an unbelievable 72-0 SCAC record, winning four SCAC Championships and advancing to the NCAA playoffs four times. Last season, she helped the Tigers to Division III's best team hitting percentage (.346). She is the school record-holder with 1,615 assists in 2002, as well as holding the school record with 13 service aces in one match. She has a chance this season to become Trinity's second student-athlete - in any sport - to become a four-time All-America selection.

Farrimond received seven first-place votes from the coaches, followed by teammate Kamri Young, who received two votes. Southwestern University's Misti White received the remaining first-place vote.

Sarah Burger, a first-year middle hitter from Goshen, Ky., hit .370 (second in the SCAC), and had 514 kills (4.08 per game - third in the SCAC) this season for the Colonels. She also added 106 blocks (10th in the SCAC) and helped lead her team to a tie for fifth place in the conference standings. Burger, who was the league's Player-of-the-Week in Week 1 and Week 7, is the first freshman to win multiple POTW awards since Janie Hodgkinson of DePauw University was honored three times in 1998.

Bennett was the coaches' clear choice for FOTY honors, garnering all nine possible votes in the process. Sara Buros of Trinity received the remaining vote.

Maggie Chang, a senior libero from Sugar Land, Texas, was named to the 2003 All-South Region team and was an Honorable Mention All-America selection. Chang was fourth in the SCAC in digs with 581 (5.05 per game), which is second in school single-season history. She is also the school's record holder for career digs (1810), and she is Trinity's first-ever libero.

Amanda Swanstrom, a junior libero from Houston, Texas, set a new school and conference single-season record for digs with 817 this season. She led the league and finished 20th nationally for digs per game (6.64). At the end of her junior season, Swanstrom ranks fifth all-time in career digs at Rhodes with 1506 and is on pace to be the school's all-time leader.

Chang and Swanstrom both received three votes to share the award. Jenni Zeser of DePauw received two votes and Rachel Kinkade of Southwestern and Laura Telezyn of Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology each received one vote.

Julie Jenkins led Trinity to an 18-0 conference mark, the ninth time that the Tigers have finished SCAC play without a loss. Trinity has won 72 consecutive SCAC matches since its last conference loss at the end of the 2000 season. Trinity, which was ranked as high as seventh in the nation this year, completed the season with a 31-6 overall record and advanced to the NCAA South Region semifinal match before falling to Texas Lutheran University last weekend. Jenkins, the 1999 AVCA National Coach-of-the-Year and nine-time SCAC COTY, ranked 12th among all active DIII coaches in total wins entering the 2004 season and now has a career mark of 550-266 (.674).

Sam Lambert, in her sixth year as Rhodes' head women's volleyball coach, led the Lynx to their best single-season win percentage since the 1992 team duplicated the 2004 squad's 25-11 overall mark. The 25 victories are the most for a Rhodes team since 1996. Lambert's team finished third in the SCAC (13-5) - the highest conference finish for the Lynx since 1995. The Coach-of-the-Year honor is the first for Lambert and just the second for the Rhodes volleyball program (Julie Bowen was selected COTY in 1991).

In sharing the COTY honor, Jenkins and Lambert each received four votes from their peers. Jamie Burns of Millsaps College received the remaining two votes.

2004 SCAC Player-of-the-Year
Ashley Farrimond Trinity University S Sr. Garden Ridge, Texas

2004 SCAC Freshman-of-the-Year
Sarah Burger Centre College MH Fy. Goshen, Ky.

2004 SCAC Backrow Co-Players-of-the-Year
Maggie Chang Trinity University L Sr. Sugar Land, Texas
Amanda Swanstrom Rhodes College L Jr. Houston, Texas

2004 SCAC Co-Coaches-of-the-Year
Julie Jenkins Trinity University 31-6 overall / 18-0 SCAC / 1st place
Sam Lambert Rhodes College 25-11 overall / 13-5 SCAC / 3rd place

-All-SCAC teams to follow-

2004 All-SCAC Women's Volleyball First Team
(7) 106 Ashley Farrimond Trinity S Sr. Garden Ridge, Texas
(2) 98 Kamri Young Trinity OH Jr. Houston, Texas
(1) 81 Misti White Southwestern MB Jr. Allen, Texas
70 Sunny Schaeuble DePauw MH Sr. Bloomington, Ind.
67 Krista Fithian Southwestern OH Sr. Katy, Texas
60 Kathryne Giovannini Rhodes MB Sr. Spanish Fort, Ala.

2004 All-SCAC Women's Volleyball Second Team
54 Leah Ballinger Centre S Sr. Butler, Ky.
50 Sarah Burger Centre MH Fy. Goshen, Ky.
31 Maggie Chang Trinity L Sr. Sugar Land, Texas
24 Ashley Weber Millsaps OH Jr. New Orleans, La.
21 Rachel Novotny Rhodes MH Sr. Boulder, Colo.
19 Brittany Sauser Southwestern S Sr. League City, Texas

2004 All-SCAC Women's Volleyball Third Team
14 Lindsey Kerbel Rose-Hulman S Sr. Billings, Mont.
13 Jesica Petretti Rose-Hulman OH Sr. Medina, Ohio
10 Alison Kley Southwestern MB Sr. LaPorte, Texas
10 Sarah McAdams Rhodes S Jr. St. Louis, Mo.
7 Amanda Swanstrom Rhodes L Jr. Houston, Texas
*6 Jessie Dureell Trinity MB So. Conroe, Texas
*6 Whitney Faust Centre MH Sr. Shepardsville, Ky.
*6 Colleen Kelly Millsaps OH So. Slidell, La.

*Three players tied for the final Third Team position.

First-place votes are in parentheses. Voting totals based on coaches' votes with 12 points awarded for first-place votes, 11 points for second-place votes, 10 points for third-place votes, etc., down to one point for a 12th-place vote. Freshman-of-the-Year voting was done on a vote-by-vote basis, as was Coach-of-the-Year. In all cases, coaches could not vote for themselves or their own players.

-SCAC-