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A nationwide voting committee in the closest vote in the award’s history selected Loyola All-American outside attacker Thomas Jaeschke as the 2015 Off the Block/Springbak, Inc. National Server of the Year.
Off the Block announced Friday morning that Jaeschke beat-out the runner-up Penn State outside attacker Aaron Russell by one vote to win the annual college men’s volleyball award.
The Off the Block/Springbak, Inc. National Server of the Year recognizes the top individual serving performance from a NCAA Division I-II men’s volleyball player during the regular season.
Jaeschke finished the regular season second in the conference with 42 aces and second in the nation with a 0.57 aces per game. He also had at least four aces in four matches as Loyola was ranked No. 1 for the majority of the regular season and earned the No. 2 seed for the MIVA Tournament.
Jaeschke received a nation-best nine first-place votes to finish with 44 votes, while Russell earned five first-place votes but came up one vote shy of tying for the national award.
George Mason opposite Paco Velez, the other finalist for the National Server of the Year, ended in third place with 31 votes.
The voting committee for this award was comprised of more than 30 college men’s volleyball head coaches and volleyball reporters from around the nation.
This is the third consecutive year a Loyola player has won the National Server of the Year. Former Loyola All-American opposite Joseph Smalzer repeated as the award winner in 2013 and 2014.
Off the Block is a website that launched in January 2011 and has become among the nation’s leading media outlets for college men’s volleyball news and analysis. Springbak, Inc. is the official sponsor of the 2015 National Server of the Year and produces high performance footwear used by professional athletes from the NFL, NBA, MLB and U.S. Olympic teams and the top college teams in the nation.
NATIONAL SERVER OF THE YEAR: VOTING RESULTS
1. Thomas Jaeschke, Loyola — 44 (9) votes
2. Aaron Russell, Penn State — 43 (5) votes
3. Paco Velez, George Mason — 31 (5) votes
4. Micah Christenson, USC — 20 (5) votes
5. Brook Sedore, Hawai’i — 13 (2) votes
6. Artur Carbal, Coker — 11 (2) votes
7. Colin Hackworth, Lindenwood — 10 (2) votes
8. Matt Tarantino, Pepperdine — 6 votes
9. Zach La Cavera — 5 (1) votes
T-10. Nick Serowski, King — 3 (1)
T-10. Alex Harthaller — 3 (1) votes
T-12. Enzo Mackenzie, Sacred Heart — 2 votes
T-12. Michael Saeta, UC Irvine — 2 votes
14. Cody Kessel, Princeton — 1 vote