Ciarelli named 2012 AVCA National Player of the Year

A Trojan has received the nation’s top individual honor for the second consecutive year.

USC senior outside attacker Tony Ciarelli was named the 2012 AVCA Men’s Division I-II National Player of the Year on Wednesday at the organization’s annual awards banquet.

Ciarelli, a senior and USC co-captain, was named a First-Team All-American after the regular season fifth in the nation with a 4.05 kills per game average. The senior also led the nation with a 0.63 aces per game average and set a conference record in April with 11 aces in a single match.

With Ciarelli leading the offense, USC ended the regular season on a nation-best 18 match winning streak and won the MPSF regular season title. The Trojans received the at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament after losing in the conference tournament semifinals.

Ciarelli won this national award one year after USC outside attacker Murphy Troy was the AVCA National Player of the Year.

This is third time that a school has won consecutive National Player of the Year awards. Then-UCLA outside attacker and current USC assistant coach Jeff Nygaard won back-to-back player of the year honors in 1994 and 1995, while Pepperdine’s George Roumain won the award in 1998 and 1999.

Ciarelli is the sixth USC player in program history to win the National Player of the Year. The others Trojans to win the award includes Adam Johnson, Tom Duke, Bryan Ivie and Donald Suxho.