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A nationwide voting committee has selected Hawai’i middle attacker Patrick Gasman, UCLA middle attacker Daenan Gyimah, Lewis middle attacker Tyler Mitchem and UC Irvine middle attacker Scott Stadick as finalists for the Ryan Millar Award.
The Ryan Millar Award, which is named after the former BYU All-American and U.S. Olympian, is presented to the nation’s best middle attacker 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 later this week as part of its College Men’s Volleyball National Awards Presentation.
Gasman was seventh in the nation with a 1.20 blocks per game average and had at least five blocks in five matches during the shortened season because of the coronavirus pandemic. He also had a career-high 18 aces and was among the nation’s top 15 with a .383 attack percentage, including a season-high nine kills while hitting .800 in a sweep against Grand Canyon.
Gyimah, who has won the Ryan Millar Award the last two seasons, was sixth in the country with a .492 attack percentage. The senior despite missing part of the season with an injury had double-digit kills in nine matches and had a season-high 16 kills on a .625 attack percentage in a season finale upset victory against UC San Diego.
Mitchem finished the season fourth in the nation with a .505 attack percentage and had double-digit kills in 11 matches, including a stretch of at least 10 kills in six straight matches while only committing a combined five errors. In addition, Mitchem was 11th in the nation averaging 1.12 blocks per game as he helped the Flyers end the shortened season in first place in the MIVA.
Stadick set a single-season NCAA Division I-II men’s volleyball record during the rally scoring era with a 2.03 blocks per game average and had at least 10 blocks in four matches. He also was among the national leaders with a .358 attack percentage, including having a season-high 12 kills while hitting .374 in a four-game loss to BYU.
The voting committee for the Ryan Millar Award was comprised of about 25 college men’s volleyball head coaches and volleyball reporters from around the nation.
The top three vote-getters traditionally are named finalists for the Ryan Millar Award. However, the narrow voting gap between the top four vote-getters this year resulted in there being four finalists.
This is the fifth year that Off the Block has presented the Ryan Millar Award. Previous winners of this award are former Stanford All-American middle attacker Conrad Kaminski and former Long Beach State All-American middle attacker Amir Lugo-Rodriguez in 2017.
Off the Block 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 Erik Shoji Award to the nation’s top libero.
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.