With the college volleyball season coming up, the Big 12 announced its preseason award winners and team on Tuesday, highlighted by several players from the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
Six were named to the all preseason team while Baylor freshman and Denton Guyer grad Kyndal Stowers was named co-preseason freshman of the year. Stowers was the No. 16 ranked prospect in the nation coming out of Guyer and the top ranked player in the Lone Star state.
Stowers had over 1,300 kills in her high school career and helped Guyer to the regional semifinals last season. She was voted district MVP and TGCA all state. She was also district MVP in 2021 and helped the Wildcats to the regional final as a freshman and regional semis as a sophomore.
Following her senior year, Stowers was honored as an AVCA All American.
Fellow Baylor Bear Averi Carlson was one of six from DFW to make the all preseason team. Carlson was one of five on the team to be a unanimous selection. Carlson, a sophomore setter, was All Big 12 first team and All Big 12 rookie team last season.
Carlson, a Lucas Lovejoy grad, was Big 12 freshman of the year in 2022 and a 5-time rookie of the week. She started in all 32 matches and played in all 117 sets. She had eight double doubles and a season high 54 assists twice. Carlson finished with 1,258 assists on the season.
Carlson was Baylor’s highest ranked recruit in program history (No. 4) and the top setter among the 2022 class. She started four years at Lovejoy and went to the state title game four times with three straight championships (2019, 2020, 2021). She posted nearly 4,500 assists in her career along with 1,121 digs and 206 aces. She was a four time All American and named Gatorade National and Texas Player of the Year after her senior season.
Four players from national champion Texas Longhorns made the preseason team including three from the metroplex, Asjia O’Neal (Southlake Carroll), Molly Phillips (Mansfield), Jenna Wenaas (Frisco Liberty). O’Neal is a unanimous pick. O’Neal and Phillips both made All Big 12 first team last season.
O’Neal, the daughter of NBA all star Jermaine O’Neal, is a redshirt senior middle for the Horns. Phillips is a senior hitter and Wenaas, who started her career at Minnesota, is a junior outside hitter for Texas. She totaled 208 kills and hit 0.443 last season and has amassed 725 kills and 437 total blocks in her career. She had nine kills and hit 0.643 in the national championship win over Louisville in December.
O’Neal was the No. 2 recruit out of high school. She was district MVP as a junior in 2016.
Phillips had 200 kills and hit 0.381 last season. She had six kills against Louisville and 14 kills in the national semifinals against San Diego. In 368 career sets, she has 606 kills, 299 total blocks and has hit 0.362. Phillips was a four time first team all district while at Mansfield and a two time All American as a senior in 2018.
Wenaas as the No. 3 recruit out of Liberty and a first team All-American. She is the all-time kills leader at Liberty with 2,073 career kills to go along with a 0.296 hitting percentage, 183 blocks, 1,484 digs and 140 aces. She was a two time district MVP, district newcomer of the year as a freshman and district hitter of the year in 2018.
Joining the preseason team is Iowa State redshirt sophomore hitter and Birdville grad Maya Duckworth.
Duckworth made the Big 12 second team and All Big 12 rookie team last season for the Cyclones. She was the first Iowa State freshman to earn AVCA All Region first team honors. Her second team award is only the third time for any freshman in program history. She was a three time freshman of the week. Duckworth was second on the team with 311 kills and led the team in kills in 10 matches. She added 196 digs, 58 total blocks and 22 aces.
She was a four year starter at Birdville and three time all state. She finished with over 2,000 kills and 1,700 digs.
The final player from DFW on the team is local star, TCU fifth year senior Audrey Nalls, who was unanimous selection and Big 12 first team last season. She had a career year in 2022, setting personal marks in kills (424), hitting, aces and digs (230). Nalls was four time Big 12 player of the week. She was AVCA all region, the fifth outside hitter in TCU history to get the award. Her 424 kills are eighth most in a single season in program history.
In four years, Nalls has posted a 903 career kills and 556 digs.
