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The first season in the Hawai’i starting lineup and Gage Worsley has already become the top libero in the country.
Off the Block announced Friday that a nationwide voting committee selected Worsley as the recipient of the 2019 Erik Shoji Award.
The Erik Shoji Award, which is named after the former Stanford All-American and U.S. Olympian libero, is presented to the nation’s best libero in NCAA Division I-II men’s volleyball during the regular season.
Worsley entered the NCAA Tournament leading the Big West and was fifth in the nation averaging 2.51 digs per game. He had double-digit digs in 12 matches, including 11 digs to help Hawai’i beat Long Beach State in the Big West finals and secure the No. 1 overall seed for the NCAA Tournament.
The voting committee for the Erik Shoji 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 Erik Shoji Award.
Worsley received 55 votes — more votes than the combined totals of the other finalists, UC Santa Barbara libero Hayden Boehle and UC Irvine libero David Parker.
This is the fourth year that Off the Block has presented the Erik Shoji Award. Previous winners are former Stanford libero Evan Enriques in 2016, former Long Beach State libero Andrew Sato in 2017 and Concordia-Irvine libero Jacob Weiser last season.
Off the Block annually 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 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 leader in college men’s volleyball coverage.
2019 Erik Shoji Award voting results
1. Gage Worsley, Hawai’i — 55 points
2. Hayden Boehle, UC Santa Barbara — 22 points
3. David Parker, UC Irvine — 15 points
4. Noam Hannoun, Quincy — 6 points
T-5. Aleksa Brkovic, Barton — 4 points
T-5. Kyle Dagostino, Stanford — 4 points
T-7. Avery Aylsworth, Loyola — 3 points
T-7. Noah Dyer, Pepperdine — 3 points
T-7. Michael Simmons, Lewis — 3 points
10. Emmet Enriques, CSUN — 2 points
11. Cole Udall, Grand Canyon — 1 point