HAVERFORD, Pa. – Senior Valentine Courouble and junior Zoe Wong have been named to First Team All-Centennial honors in 2016, the Centennial Conference office announced in a release on Tuesday afternoon. The honors are the first conference postseason recognitions for the pair. This year represents the 16th straight campaign in which at least once Ford has been named to the first team. Haverford has had 25 total Centennial Conference first team selections in its history.
Courouble and Wong formed a standout offensive combination for Haverford this season with Wong providing the assists that set up Courouble's attacking firepower. Courouble had a breakout season despite missing time due to injury in the early goings. On October 17, Courouble was named Centennial Conference Player of the Week after she was designated to the Stevens Invitational All-Tournament Team. The Fords' senior captain had 12 or more kills in each of her team's five matches during the stretch for the Fords. The Belgian native, who attended high school in Washington, D.C., helped to key Haverford's 3-1 win at Muhlenberg where she put down 12 kills in a match that served as a prelude to late season success for the Fords.
Courouble set a career-high with 29 kills in a road win at Swarthmore to clinch a semifinal spot the Fords on October 29. She will leave Haverford in the top-15 in program history in points per set, kills per set, blocks per set and attack percentage. Her 3.95 kills per set was tops in the Centennial this season and good for seventh all-time in program history in a single campaign.
Wong put her stamp on countless Haverford wins from the setter position, proving to be amongst the most versatile setters in the nation this fall. Wong set new career single-game highs in kills (9), assists (50), blocks (3) and digs (20) this season while moving into fifth all-time in assists (2,037) and assist per set (6.06) at Haverford.
Her assist percentage (.412) is also the fifth-best in program history heading into her senior campaign. Wong's 945 assists in 2016 was the 11th most in program history. The San Mateo, Calif. product posted at least five kills on 10 occasions and reached 30 assists on 19 occasions. She was named to the All-Tournament team for the Haverford Invitational, Stevens Invitational and Stockton Classic, taking the honors in each tournament the Fords were a part of this season.
In addition to the All-CC honors, freshman Sara Matsumura was named to the All-Sportsmanship Team in her first campaign.
Elizabeth Wuerstle of Johns Hopkins was named the Conference Player of the Year after leading the Blue Jays to an undefeated conference season and a Centennial title. Setter Sarah Elnozahy of Johns Hopkins was named Rookie of the Year while Johns Hopkins' Tim Cole was the Coach of the Year. Elizabeth Garrison, a libero from Muhlenberg, was named the volleyball Scholar Athlete of the Year.
Haverford finished the 2016 season with a third-straight trip to the Centennial Conference tournament before losing in the semifinals to Swarthmore. The Fords finished with a 17-12 overall record and a 7-3 mark in conference in Head Coach Drew Hargrave's first season at the helm.
Haverford will next await the announcement of All-Region and All-America awards, as the AVCA makes those decisions in the coming weeks.