Nov. 16, 2006

CHICAGO - Three Loyola volleyball players were honored as the Horizon League announced its postseason awards this evening at the annual pre-tournament banquet. Senior libero Ann Deelo was named Horizon League Defensive Player of the Year while classmate Sarah Elmer was named All-Horizon League. Freshman Dana VanDiggelen rounded out the trio by being named to the Horizon League All-Newcomer Team.

It was another record-setting season in the back row for Deelo, who becomes the first Loyola player to ever earn this distinction. For the third consecutive season, Deelo established a new Loyola single-season record for digs and she broke Lauren Holbrook's school-record for career digs after a 32-dig performance on Sept. 2 against Illinois. In addition, she enters Friday's Horizon League quarterfinal match just four digs short of Megan Knightly's Horizon League record for digs in a career and is 26 digs away from setting the League's single-season mark set back in 1992.

Elmer served as the catalyst for the Loyola attack all season, giving LU an added dimension with her aggressiveness at the net. After being named the Most Valuable Player of the 2005 Horizon League Championship, Elmer continued her improvement this season and recorded four triple-doubles, including a sterling 10-kill, 40-assist, 14-dig effort in a three-game sweep of Illinois-Chicago in Loyola's regular season finale, a performance which earned her Horizon League Offensive Player of the Week honors.

Van Diggelen turned into a major weapon during Horizon League play, and her 2.62 kills/game mark was second on the team during the conference season. She racked up 17 kills and a .412 (17-3-34) hitting percentage in her first career start against Butler and gave the Ramblers a terminating hitter and a solid blocker on the right side. VanDiggelen is also playing some of her best volleyball down the stretch, as she has reached double figures in kills in five of LU's last six matches.

Loyola (14-15, 7-7 Horizon) opens Horizon League Championship play on Friday morning (Nov. 17). The sixth-seeded Ramblers will battle third-seeded Cleveland State in the opening quarterfinal match, with first serve from Wright State's McLin Gymnasium set for 10:30 a.m. CT. Loyola has reached the conference championship match in eight of the last nine years and is aiming for its third consecutive conference crown.