Locally: Washington State volleyball players Magda Jehlarova, Pia Timmer selected to all-conference first team

From staff and wire reports

The honors keep coming for Washington State volleyball standout Magda Jehlarova.

Last week the senior from Prerov, Czech Republic, was named Pac-12 volleyball Scholar Athlete of the year and first-team All-Pac-12 Conference.

Jehlarova was joined on the all-conference first team by teammate Pia Timmer.

Jehlarova, a senior management major, has earned a 3.74 grade-point-average and garnered two Pac-12 Academic Honor Roll awards. She was also named to the CoSIDA Academic All-District team in 2021.

Jehlarova is a four-time first-team All-Pac-12 selection having been named Pac-12 Freshman of the Year in 2019 in addition to all-freshman and first team all-conference honors as a true freshman. The senior from Prerov, Czech Republic, is one of the premier middles in the nation and ranks eighth in the NCAA and first in the Pac-12 with 1.50 blocks per set. She is second all-time at WSU in career blocks per set (1.44), career block assists (478) and career total blocks (592).

Timmer, an outside hitter from Emlichheim, Germany, becomes a three-time first-team honoree having been recognized as All-Pac-12 in both Spring and Fall of 2021. Timmer joined the 1,000 career kills club at WSU and has climbed to ninth all-time at WSU with 1,248 over her four years (3.30 kills/set) heading into the 2022 NCAA Tournament.

Additionally, WSU’s Laura Jansen and Katie Ryan both received All-Pac-12 honorable mention.

Like Timmer, fifth-year graduate transfer Jansen plays all six rotations for the Cougars and led the team with 3.51 kills/set on the season. Jansen had five double-doubles and four matches with 20 or more kills.

Ryan, from Rathdrum, Idaho, earned her second-career postseason all-conference nod after being named Pac-12 All-Freshman a season ago. Heading into the NCAA tournament, Ryan was well past her freshman season totals in blocks (93) and kills (272).

The 24th-ranked Cougars (23-10), making their seventh consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance, swept UNLV then lost to San Diego 3-1 in two tournament matches last week.

• Three Gonzaga volleyball players picked up All-West Coast Conference honorable mention honors as the league announced major award winners and all-conference teams.

Senior outside hitter Kennedy Croft, senior middle blocker Alyssa Hughes and junior outside hitter Zoe Thiros were honored in the vote by the WCC’s 10 head coaches.

Thiros led the Zags in kills with 3.13 per set plus a team-high 36 aces and 256 digs, second-most on the team.

Hughes’s .319 attacking percentage was the highest on the team, racking up 1.67 kills per set and finishing second on the team with 46 total blocks in 21 appearances.

Croft broke the GU record for career aces with 108 total and 27 this season to go with 221 kills in 23 appearances (2.54 per set).

Men’s cross country

Gonzaga coach Pat Tyson has been named the West Coast Conference Coach of the Year for the second time in his career.

On Nov. 19, Gonzaga finished 13th at the NCAA Cross Country Championship in Stillwater, Oklahoma. It marked Gonzaga’s best finish at nationals and third consecutive appearance at nationals. The Bulldogs received an automatic bid to nationals for the first time, qualifying with a second-place finish at the West Regionals.

Tyson first won WCC Coach of the Year honors following the spring 2020 season in which the GU men competed at nationals for the first time.

Indoor track

Three runners from Gonzaga turned in program-best or second-best times in the indoor 5K last Saturday at the Sharon Colvear-Danville Season Opener in Boston.

Kristen Garcia got things started for the Zags with the second-fastest indoor 5000m in women’s program history and fastest since 2016, finishing in 16:26.72 for an 18th-place finish in her heat and 63rd overall. Garcia currently holds the outdoor records in the 5000m (16:04.49) and 10,000m (33:27.49) on the track.

Yacine Guermali and James Mwaura both broke the previous program record in their respective 5K heats, with Guermali finishing in 13:33.99 for fourth in the third heat of the race and Mwaura finishing in 13:39.39 to notch the second-fastest individual time in program history. Both smashed the previous record by more than 20 seconds each, finishing 25th and 36th overall, respectively.

On the outdoor oval, Mwaura holds program records in both the 5000m (13:30.02) and 10,000m (27:50.44), while Guermali holds the 1500m record (3:43.59) and the fourth-fastest 5000m time in history (13:50.31).

Women’s soccer

Gonzaga women’s soccer players Lyza Bosselmann and Sophia Braun have been named first team All-West Region by the United Soccer Coaches. Erin Healy earned third team honors.

Bosselmann and Braun were the fourth and fifth Zags to be named All-Region first team and the first duo from the same team to receive All-West Region first team honors. Healy was tabbed second team last season.

Bosselmann was named the West Coast Conference Goalkeeper of the Year. She tops the program’s Top-10 in fewest goals allowed in season (13 in 2022) and in a career (47 since 2019). She is also first all-time at GU in career goals against average (0.86) and in a season (0.72). Bosselmann is second all-time at GU in career shutouts with 20 and eighth with 182 career saves.

Braun joined Bosselmann on the WCC first team. Braun started 64 of her 82 Gonzaga career appearances. She was named All-WCC multiple times in her career and Scholar All-Region in 2021. Braun also represented GU on an international level with the Argentinian national team.

Healy was selected third team All-WCC this past season. She is fourth all-time at GU with 21 goals and 50 points. She boasted a team-high six goals and 16 points in 2022.

• Margie Detrizio and Mykiaa Minniss of the Washington State women’s soccer team have been named to the 2022 United Soccer Coaches All-Pacific Region third team.

Detrizio earned all-region honors for the first time in her career after leading the Cougar offense in 2022 with a team-best 28 points and finished the year in the top three in the conference in points, goals, shots, and shots on target. The junior forward’s team-high 11 goals tied for third in the Pac-12 and she led the conference in shots and shots on target.

Minniss, a fifth-year senior defender, picked up All-Pacific Region honors for the second-consecutive season. She finished her collegiate career with 94 career starts, breaking the previous school record held by former teammate Sydney Pulver. Minniss started all 94 matches in her college career.

Volleyball

Phil Robinson, a volleyball high school and college referee 1990-2010 and treasurer for the Spokane Area Volleyball Referees Association for the past 20 years, was inducted into the SAVRA Hall of Fame at the association’s season-ending banquet.

A retired Avista financial services manager, Robinson has served as head court marshal for Spike and Dig for 30 years, was instrumental in bringing the USA-China men’s volleyball match to Spokane in 1998 and coordinated volunteers for the U.S. Figure Skating Championships here in 2007.

SAVRA gave out its annual awards, as voted by its members: Top official Dale Goodwin, partners Goodwin and Debbie Spray, contributor Brent Radford, first-year Katie Keiper, second-year and most improved Shannon McKinzie, third-year Alex Sandoval, line judges Will Hyatt and Shawn Ottosen.

Five SAVRA officials worked state high school tournaments: 4A/2A – Veronica Douglas, Shawna Sheehan; 3A – Alex Sandoval; 1A/2B – Corey Brantley, Mark Cullen.