The Drake University volleyball team collected a total of five honors from the Missouri Valley Conference to highlight the league's postseason awards announced Wednesday, March 31.
Haley Bush, a sophomore outside hitter from Waukee, Iowa, was named the MVC Player of the Year, while Drake head coach
Darrin McBroom was voted as the conference's Coach of the Year. Bush was also joined on the All-MVC first team by senior outside hitter
Emily Plock. Senior Libero
Kylee Macke was named to the All-MVC second team.
The honorees helped lead the Bulldogs to second place in the MVC regular-season and a No. 2 seed in this week's MVC Tournament. The finish ties for the highest in program history and best since 1996.
Bush is just the second Bulldog and first since 1984 to earn league Player of the Year honors. She led The Valley this season with 4.65 kills per set against league foes while hitting .254 and averaging 5.12 points per set.
McBroom is Drake's first-ever MVC Volleyball Coach of the Year after guiding the Bulldogs, who were picked ninth in the MVC preseason poll, to a second-place finish in the regular season. That second-place finish equals 1995 and 1996 seasons for the program's highest finish and the team's 11 MVC wins were the second most since the league adopted an 18-game conference schedule. McBroom is also second all-time in wins at Drake.
Plock, a native of Altoona, Iowa, joined Bush on the All-MVC first team after earning first-team honors in 2019. The outside hitter ranks fifth all-time in kills at Drake and led the team in scoring this season. She averaged 3.87 kills per set in league play with 15 aces and 0.63 blocks per set. Earlier this week, she was named to the MVC Scholar-Athlete Team for the second time.
Drake was represented on the All-MVC second team by libero
Kylee Macke. The senior from Ankeny, Iowa, led the league in digs in league play with 5.71 per set and ranks 15th nationally in digs. The honor is the first for Macke.
Drake's award winners lead the Bulldogs into Thursday's quarterfinal match at the MVC Tournament against the No. 7 seed, UNI. First serve is set for 5 p.m. on ESPN+.
