O'Banion earns All-GAC honor in volleyball

SAU Sports Information

Following a senior season in which she eclipsed both the 1,000 career kills and 300 career blocks milestones, SAU Volleyball's Alli O'Banion was named to the Great American Conference's Honorable Mention team as announced by the league on Wednesday evening at the annual awards banquet in Hot Springs, Arkansas.

The honor is the third-consecutive selection to the GAC's Honorable Mention team for O'Banion, who was named to the team at the conclusion of her sophomore and junior seasons.

To say O'Banion finished her final week in a Lady Mulerider uniform strong would be an understatement as posted attack percentages of .361 (at Ouachita) and .311 (vs. Henderson State) to vault herself into the Rally Scoring Era's top 10 in career attack percentage where she ranks ninth with a four-year clip of .201. In addition, she produced back-to-back matches with 15 or more kills for just the second time in her career as she tallied 35 total kills in two matches during the final week of the season, which stands as the most kills in any two-match stretch of her career.

As a senior, O'Banion played in all 31 matches with 28 starts and was the lone Lady Mulerider to play in all 117 sets this fall. The opposite/middle hitter finished with 271 kills at 2.32 kills per set with a .200 attack percentage, while also recording ten or more kills in match thirteen times.

Defensively, she added 80.0 total blocks (11 solo, 69 ast.), and played a key role in helping the Lady Muleriders record the second-most block assists (342) in a single season in the Rally Scoring Era and the most in any season since 2003, while SAU's 222.0 total blocks stand as the fourth-most in a RSE season and its most since 2007. The team's 1.88 blocks per set this season ranked sixth in the GAC and is the highest such mark in a season since 2007 and the fifth-highest in the RSE.

Her marks this fall in kills, kills per set, and total blocks all ranked second on the team for SAU, while her 316.5 total points at 2.71 points per set were also the second-most for the Lady Muleriders.

It was an historic final campaign for the Dos Palos, California, native as she finished her career at Southern Arkansas with the third-most kills (1,023) and the third-most blocks (314) in SAU's Rally Scoring Era (RSE). Within her 314 career blocks are the most block assists in the RSE at 274, while her 40 career block solos rank eighth and her 0.67 blocks per set career mark ranks fifth in the RSE. O'Banion also set a new career RSE mark in sets played (470), and owns top five career RSE marks in matches played (2nd | 126), total points (3rd | 1,208), and attack attempts (3rd | 2,783).

In addition, O'Banion became the eighth player in GAC Volleyball history with 1,000 or more career kills and the seventh with 300 or more career blocks.

Of the 481 sets that SAU has played since O'Banion's freshman year of 2014, the three-time All-GAC performer played in 470 of those sets making 107 starts in 126 matches played and finished her career with 34 double-figure kill matches and 56 matches with at least 3.0 total blocks.

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