AVCA RELEASE | OFF THE BLOCK RELEASE

MALIBU, Calif. " David Wieczorek and Alex Harthaller of the Pepperdine men's volleyball team garnered American Volleyball Coaches Association All-American acclaim, as announced by the AVCA on Monday morning. Wieczorek earned second team honors, while Harthaller picked up honorable mention status.

This is Wieczorek's second AVCA All-American honor and Harthaller's first. Along with the AVCA acclaim, setter Robert Mullahey (Manhattan Beach, Calif./Mira Costa HS) was also tabbed to Off the Block, Springbak, Inc's Freshman All-American squad.

David Wieczorek (Chicago, Ill./Loyola Academy) was a key to the Waves' successes this year. He was the seventh Pepperdine men's volleyball to earn MPSF Player of the Year honors, and also earned All-MPSF first team acclaim this season. He led the team with 4.00 kills/set on a .349 success rate, while adding a team-high 42 aces for 0.57 aces/set. The all-around athlete also marked 0.74 blocks/set and 1.22 digs/set for the Waves. He posted double-figure kills 18 times this season and 48 times in his career, while leading the Waves in kills this season on 16 separate occasions. This is the second All-American honor for Wieczorek as he garnered honorable mention acclaim last season.

Wieczorek earned an MPSF-high four weekly awards this year, each as an offensive player of the week. Leading to his fourth honor, he tied the 2018 MPSF-high of six aces against Concordia (Mar. 15), record a team season-high 22 kills in a win over No. 3 Hawai'i (Mar. 18) and hit .400 for the week. In a four-set win at No. 4 UC Irvine, he put up 19 kills with a .350 clip, while serving three aces and recording a pair of block solos.

Alex Harthaller (Innsbruck, Austria/IPFW) also picked up honorable mention honors. He earned an All-MPSF second team nod and picked up MPSF Defensive Player of the Week honors on March 19. He put up one double-double this season, while marking double-figure kills in 17 separate matches. This season, he marked 3.07 kills/set on a .269 success rate, while adding 0.36 aces/set, 1.41 digs/set and 0.67 blocks/set.

The 2018 selections were made by the AVCA Division I-II Men's Volleyball All-America Committee: chairperson Dan Friend (Lewis), Alan Knipe (Long Beach State), Charlie Wade (Hawi'i), David Heller (Mount Olive), Ryan Booher (King), Danny Goncalves (NJIT), Mike Rumbaugh (Saint Francis), Mark Hulse (Loyola-Chicago), Shawn Olmstead (BYU) and Jeff Nygaard (Southern California).

For Mullahey's Freshman All-American honor, A nationwide voting committee selected 10 players to the annual Off the Block/Springbak, Inc. Freshmen All-American Team.

He earned the honor after posting 10.58 assists/set for the Waves this season, adding 0.18 aces/set, 1.45 digs/set and 0.39 blocks/set. He led Pepperdine in assists in every single one of the Waves' 23 matches this season, posting a career-best 51 assists against USC on Feb. 17. He also led the team in digs on five separate occasions.

The Off the Block/Springbak, Inc. Freshmen All-American Team honors the top NCAA Division I-II men's volleyball freshmen players from the regular season. This is the fifth year Off the Block and Springbak, Inc. have presented the national honor, and it remains the only Freshmen All-American Team presented in college men's volleyball. A voting committee of about 25 men's volleyball coaches and volleyball media members from around the nation determined the Freshmen All-American Team.

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