Sarah Von Lienen named AVCA Honorable Mention NCAA Division II All-America selection

LEXINGTON, Kentucky – Arkansas Tech senior middle blocker Sarah Von Lienen (Lakeland, Tenn.) added an impressive accolade to her postseason honors on Monday as she named an AVCA (American Volleyball Coaches Association) Honorable Mention NCAA Division II All-America selection.
Monday’s honor from the AVCA came five days after Von Lienen was named a First-Team AVCA All-South Region honoree. With her All-America honor, Von Lienen becomes just the second Golden Sun Volleyball player in the Division II era (1995-present) to earn AVCA All-America honors as Dong Mei Cui was named an AVCA All-America honoree in 1997. Along with Dong Mei Cui, Ningning Liu was named a Daktronics NCAA Division II All-America selection in 2002 and Stacy Burnett-Mallett was Tech’s first-ever volleyball All-America honoree as she was named an NAIA All-American in 1991.

“What are huge honor not only for Sarah, but also for our volleyball program at Arkansas Tech,” Golden Suns Head Coach Kristy Bayer said. “She had a tremendous career and is one of the all-time great volleyball players in the school’s history and is very deserving of All-America recognition from the AVCA.”

Von Lienen was one of two Gulf South Conference players named an All-America selection by the AVCA as North Alabama senior middle blocker was named an Honorable Mention All-America honoree.

On the season, Von Lienen, who was named the GSC West Division Player of the Year and was named a First-Team All-GSC West Division selection for the third consecutive season, earned AVCA Honorable Mention All-America honors after leading the Golden Suns in kills (406), kills per set (3.76) and blocks (91) and she also hit .341 in 108 sets played. On the season, Von Lienen, who was named both an AVCA and Daktronics First-Team All-South Region selection this season, was named a GSC West Division Player of the Week three times and earned 14th weekly Player of the Week honors from the league in four-year Golden Sun career. She finished her career standing four on the school’s all-time kill chart (1,436), second on the career hitting percentage chart (.317) and second on the school’s Division II era chart (477). In addition, Von Lienen, who was named to the GSC All-Tournament Team this year, is fifth on the school’s career block chart and finished third in career double-figure kill matches with 73 and had eight career 20-plus kill matches, including recording 20 kills in Tech’s four-set loss to North Alabama in the GSC Tournament semifinals.