#23 Volleyball Earns Multiple Conference Awards

HOUSTON – The #23 University of Houston volleyball team was well represented in the American Athletic Conference year-end awards, earning five honors following a historic regular-season for the Cougars.

Junior Kate Georgiades was unanimously voted Libero of the Year by the league's coaches, while head coach David Rehr was named Coach of the Year. Georgiades, senior Abbie Jackson and graduate Isabel Theut were all named to the All-American Athletic Conference First Team, while senior Rachel Tullos was placed on the all-conference second team.

Georgiades earned her second consecutive The American Libero of the Year honor after also receiving the award last year. The junior has tallied 622 digs this season, including 411 in conference play en route to six conference player of the week awards. She averaged 5.46 digs per set, which ranks eighth in the country and leads the conference. Tallying 34 digs against Tulsa on Nov. 11, she set a new program-best for digs in a three-set match. She was also talented at receiving serves, posting only 30 reception errors on over 600 attempts. Georgiades' 622 digs this season ranks eighth in program history in the libero-era (post-2002).

Rehr guided the team to its highest win total since 1980, prior to the NCAA adding the sport when Houston competed in the AIAW. The team captured its first conference title since 1999 and is heading to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2000. Houston followed up a four-set loss to #1 Texas by going on a program-record 20-match win streak that included 11 straight-set victories. Rehr's squad finished the regular season with a 28-3 record, including a 19-1 record in conference play.

Jackson led Houston with 3.87 kills per set in the regular season, tallying 441 overall. She's also one of the nation's best servers, leading the conference and ranking 20^th nationally with 52 aces this season. The Gig Harbor, Wash., native broke the school's career service aces record earlier this season and is only two aces away from breaking the conference record. Jackson has also tallied 11 double-doubles this year, adding 297 digs to her stat line.

Theut reached new heights in 2022, tallying 402 kills this season to finish second on the team while posting a .281 hitting percentage. The two-time conference player of the week finished sixth in the conference with 3.53 kills per set while also adding 69 total blocks to her totals. She posted new season-long career highs in kills, kills per set, hitting attempts, block assists and points this campaign and also finished second on the squad with 439.0 points.

Tullos earned her fourth all-conference selection, joining a first team honor in 2021 and second team placements in 2019 and 2020. A force on both sides of the ball, Tullos led Houston hitters with over 100 attempts in hitting percentage with a .335 efficiency, tallying 159 kills. The two-time conference player of the week honoree also led the team with 129 blocks, averaging 1.13 per set to finish third in the conference.

UP NEXT
The Cougars start their NCAA Tournament slate by heading to Omaha, Neb., at 3:30 p.m. on Friday as the fifth seed with an opening round matchup against Summit League Champion South Dakota. The match will be streamed on ESPN+.

The winner of Friday's match will play the victor of host and four-seed Creighton vs. Auburn on Saturday.

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Kate Georgiades

Abbie Jackson

Isabel Theut

Rachel Tullos

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