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A nationwide voting committee selected UC Santa Barbara libero Hayden Boehle, UC Irvine libero David Parker and Hawai’i libero Gage Worsley as finalists for the annual Erik Shoji Award.
The Erik Shoji Award, which is named after the former Stanford All-American and U.S. Olympian libero, is presented to the nation’s best libero in NCAA Division I-II men’s volleyball during the regular season.
Off the Block announced the finalists on Sunday and will unveil the award winner on Friday as part of its College Men’s Volleyball National Awards Presentation.
Boehle was sixth in the nation with a 2.46 digs per game average and led the Big West with 266 digs. He also had double-digit kills in 16 matches, including a season-high 18 digs in a five-game victory against CSUN on March 29.
Parker was third in the Big West and ninth in the nation with a 2.33 digs per game average. In addition, Parker had 11 matches with double-digit digs featuring a season-high 17 digs in a four-game victory against UC Santa Barbara on April 13.
Worsley led the Big West and was fifth in the nation averaging 2.51 digs per game. He had double-digit digs in 12 matches, including 11 digs to help Hawai’i beat Long Beach State in the Big West finals and secure the No. 1 overall seed for the NCAA Tournament.
The voting committee for the Erik Shoji Award was comprised of about 25 college men’s volleyball head coaches and volleyball reporters from around the nation.
The top three vote-getters were named finalists for the Erik Shoji Award.
This is the fourth year that Off the Block has presented the Erik Shoji Award. Previous winners are former Stanford libero Evan Enriques in 2016, former Long Beach State libero Andrew Sato in 2017 and Concordia-Irvine libero Jacob Weiser last season.
Off the Block annually presents several end of season awards. Among the other national awards includes the Lloy Ball Award to the nation’s top setter, the Bryan Ivie Award to the nation’s top opposite, the Karch Kiraly Award to the nation’s top outside attacker and the Ryan Millar Award to the nation’s top middle attacker.
Off the Block is a national award winning website that launched in 2011 and is the nation’s leader in college men’s volleyball coverage.