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Opposite Stijn van Tilburg now has the top national award for his position to go along with leading Hawai’i to a NCAA Tournament appearance.
Off the Block announced Tuesday that a nationwide voting committee selected van Tilburg as the winner of the 2017 Bryan Ivie Award.
The Bryan Ivie Award, which is named after the former USC All-American and U.S. Olympian, is presented to the nation’s best opposite in NCAA Division I-II men’s volleyball during the regular season.
van Tilburg finished the regular season third in the nation with a 4.32 kills per game average and was in the nation’s top 15 with a .382 attack percentage. The All-MPSF sophomore also had at least 15 kills in 13 regular season matches.
Among van Tilburg’s top performances of the season included a match-high 21 kills on a .515 attack percentage in a sweep against Stanford in March. In addition, he had a combined 38 kills in three conference tournament matches to help the Rainbow Warriors earn an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament.
This was the closest vote margin of victory in the three-year history of the Bryan Ivie Award. van Tilburg received 43 votes — three more votes than the runner-up Ohio State opposite Miles Johnson.
BYU opposite Ben Patch, the 2016 recipient of the Bryan Ivie Award, finished in third place with 17 votes.
The voting committee for the Bryan Ivie 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 Bryan Ivie Award.
The Bryan Ivie Award is one of several end of season awards presented by Off the Block. Among the other national awards includes the Lloy Ball Award to the nation’s top setter, Karch Kiraly Award to the nation’s top outside attacker, the Erik Shoji Award to the nation’s top libero 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 leaders in college men’s volleyball coverage.
2017 BRYAN IVIE AWARD (voting results)
1. Stijn van Tilburg, Hawai’i — 43 votes
2. Miles Johnson, Ohio State — 40 votes
3. Ben Patch, BYU — 17 votes
4. Kyle Ensing, Long Beach State — 5 votes
T-5. Jeff Hogan, St. Francis — 3 votes
T-5. Tanner Syftestad, UC San Diego — 3 votes
T-7. Angelos Mandilaris, Barton — 2 votes
T-7. Maalik Walker, McKendree — 2 votes
T-9. Tamir Hershko, UC Irvine — 1 vote
T-9. Calvin Mende, Penn State — 1 vote
T-9. Robert Poole, Mount Olive — 1 vote