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Five college-student journalists earned a national honor for their college men’s volleyball coverage this season.
Off the Block announced Sunday that The Daily Collegian reporters Matt Martell and Mark Puelo, Daily Bruin reporters Claire Fahy and Tanner Walters and Ball State SportsLink play-by-play announcer Cory Stace were selected as the 2015 Off the Block Men’s Volleyball Conference Reporters of the Year.
The Off the Block Men’s Volleyball Conference Reporters of the Year is an annual award recognizing the best journalists in college student-media who covered teams in the EIVA, MIVA and MPSF.
Winners were determined on their reporting and storytelling abilities throughout the college men’s volleyball regular season and their live coverage of matches on various media platforms. Off the Block conducted a season-long nationwide analysis of men’s volleyball coverage in college student-media.
The Off the Block Men’s Volleyball Conference Reporters of the Year are selected at the end of each regular season. Among the other men’s volleyball media award presented by Off the Block includes the Best Men’s Volleyball Online Coverage of the Year that is awarded to a college newspaper and the Top Men’s Volleyball Stories of the Week.
This is the fifth consecutive year that individuals from Ball State and Penn State have won conference reporter of the year honors. In addition, this is the third time a reporter from UCLA has received the award.
Off the Block launched in January 2011 and is the nation’s leading website in college men’s volleyball news and analysis.
2015 OFF THE BLOCK CONFERENCE REPORTERS OF THE YEAR
Co-EIVA Reporter of the Year: Matt Martell and Mark Puleo, The Daily Collegian, Penn State University
MIVA Reporter of the Year: Cory Stace, SportsLink, Ball State University
Co-MPSF Reporter of the Year: Tanner Walters and Claire Fahy, Daily Bruin, UCLA
Conference reporter of the year honorable mentions
Alexis Davito — MIVA sports information, Lewis University
Robby General — The Ball State Daily News, Ball State University
Hayley Musashi — Ka Leo, Univeristy of Hawai’i
Andrew Switaj — Ka Leo, University of Hawai’i
EIVA Reporter of the Year: Matt Martell, The Daily Collegian
Martell as one of the two Penn State men’s volleyball beat reporter for The Daily Collegian produced about 50 stories this year. The freshman also had four stories make an Off the Block Top College Men’s Volleyball Stories of the Week list during the regular season. including a news-feature story giving an in-depth breakdown about how Penn State makes in-match adjustments.
EIVA Reporter of the Year: Mark Puleo, The Daily Collegian
Puleo as one of the two Penn State men’s volleyball beat reporters for The Daily Collegian produced a variety of game stories, previews and personality profiles about the team throughout the season. Among Puleo’s four articles to make an Off the Block Top College Men’s Volleyball Stories of the Week list this year included a feature about Penn State All-American outside attacker Aaron Russell’s relationship with his older brother.
MIVA Reporter of the Year: Cory Stace, SportsLink
Stace this season served as the Ball State men’s volleyball play-by-play announcer for Ball State SportsLink. Among the numerous live SportsLink productions of Ball State matches this year with Stace as the play-by-play announcer included a statewide broadcast of Ball State’s five-game non-conference victory against Princeton in March.
MPSF Reporter of the Year: Claire Fahy, Daily Bruin
Fahy along with being the assistant sports editor for the Daily Bruin covered the UCLA men’s volleyball team for the second straight season. She had eight articles make an Off the Block Top College Men’s Volleyball Stories of the Week list, including a personality profile about outside attacker Christian Hessenauer overcoming injuries to make UCLA’s roster. In addition, Off the Block will be nominating Fahy for the 2015 AVCA Grant Burger Media Award in the college-journalist division. The Grant Burger Media Award is annually presented to the journalist or media outlet that produced the best volleyball coverage.
MPSF Reporter of the Year: Tanner Walters, Daily Bruin
Walters in his first season covering the UCLA men’s volleyball team for Daily Bruin had eight articles make an Off the Block Top College Men’s Volleyball Stories of the Week list this season. He also was one of the nation’s most active college men’s volleyball reporters on social media producing engaging and informative in-match tweets for almost every Bruins match.