HAVERFORD, Pa. - Haverford senior co-captain Sara Matsumura was selected to the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Division III All-Mid Atlantic Region team, the organization announced on Thursday morning. Matsumura becomes the first Haverford player to garner All-region honors since Meg O'Day captured the award in 2015. In total, Matsumura is the 18th Haverford player to earn selection to an All-Region team.
Earlier this week, Matsumura was named first-team All-Centennial Conference. The Salt Lake City, Utah native led the conference in digs (521) and digs per set (5.99). In conference contests, Matsumura was first in digs per set with 6.41 and fifth in total digs (141), despite missing the final four Centennial contests due to injury. Matsumura also notched 54 service aces on the season, including nine against Centennial competition. She finished 16th in Division III in digs per set, and 48th in aces per set.
Haverford's libero finishes her career third in program history with 1,953 career digs and 4.98 digs per set. The chemistry major is also in the top 10 in program history in career serve percentage and reception perentage.
Matsumura was previously named to the Centennial Conference All-Sportsmanship team for the fourth consecutive season, becoming the first player in program history to earn that distinction four times since the introduction of the plaudit to the conference's postseason awards array in 2009.
The Centennial Conference was well represented in the All-region honors, with eight student-athletes named to the All-Mideast Region team and another two garnering honorable mention. Natalie Aston of Johns Hopkins was named Region Player of the Year, while Sierra Tyson of Swarthmore was the Region Freshman of the Year. Matt Troy of Johns Hopkins was named the Region Coach of the Year.
This season, Haverford returned to the postseason for the 17th time in the last 20 years. Haverford's 22 wins were the most for the program in a single season since the 2014 squad also notched 22.