Louisville’s Ana Yartseva was named to the 24th annual American Volleyball Coaches Association All-America Third Team, while Conference USA had six other players earn honorable mention All-America honors, as announced by the AVCA on Wednesday. The awards will be presented tomorrow, Dec. 17, at the AVCA All-America/Player of the Year Banquet at the Long Beach (Calif.) Westin Hotel.

Three Louisville players; Jennifer Hoffman, Bing Sun, and Lena Ustymenko were named AVCA honorable mention, while Aida Antanaviciute of Saint Louis, Julie DuPont of Cincinnati and Heather Watts of Memphis also grabbed the accolade.

The selections are made by the AVCA Division I All-America Committee: chair - Janice Kruger, Maryland; Pi'i Aiu, Colorado; Rich Feller, California; Burt Fuller, Utah State; Judy Green, Alabama; Jill Hirschinger, New Hampshire; Nancy Mueller, Illinois-Chicago; and Mark Rosen, Michigan. Each of the three AVCA All-America teams is comprised of 12 athletes.

Yartseva is only the third C-USA player in league history to earn All-America distinction. DuPont, the 2004 C-USA Player of the Year, earned third-team honors in 2003. Michelle Collier of USF earned the same honor in 2002.

Yartseva finished the season hitting .447 for the second best in Division I. The 6-4 sophomore from Anapa, Russia, averaged 2.43 kills, 1.24 blocks and 2.49 digs per game. She helped the U of L claim its eighth NCAA Tournament berth en route to the Cardinals’ third Sweet 16 appearance. Louisville went undefeated in conference play (13-0) for the second time in school history and held a 22-match winning streak, until the squad fell to top-ranked Nebraska, 3-0, in the 2004 NCAA Sweet 16 on Dec.