Last Friday, College second-year volleyball players Taylor Gwynne and Andréa Jones were both selected as Honorable Mentions by the North Coast Athletic Conference. 

Gwynne tallied 712 assists this season and finished third in the NCAC with an average of 8.79 assists per set. She now holds the record for the second-highest single-season assists total in Oberlin’s program history.

This is Gwynne’s first collegiate season so she is grateful to have seen playing time on the court.

“Me and Andréa getting recognized together is really cool because our success comes from one another,” she said. “Our success comes from the team’s success overall, which in turn comes from everybody putting in the work to be the best we could be as a unit.”

After not playing in a competitive game setting for a while after the pandemic canceled  her first-year season, Gwynne says she really focused on her basics.

“In terms of setting, I tried to reteach myself some of the fundamentals and decision-making that you need to make as a setter,” she said. “The setters on our team put in a lot of work to know we could rely on our mechanics by focusing on that when working with the coaches.”

Similarly, Jones says that receiving an honorable mention is really important to her, especially after not being able to compete last year. 

“I am proud to say that my hard work paid off and I am happy to be receiving this award with my teammates by my side,” she said. 

Head Volleyball Coach Erica Rau says that she is proud of Gwynne and Jones, and that the two were key contributors to the team’s success this season.  

“Taylor and Andréa are well on their way to set records,” Rau said. “We have a very young team and Andréa and Taylor are our anchors.”