Follow
A nationwide voting committee has selected BYU opposite Gabi Garcia Fernandez, Barton opposite Angelos Mandilaris and Hawai’i opposite Rado Parapunov as finalists for the 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.
Off the Block announced the award finalists on Friday and will unveil the winner next week as part of its College Men’s Volleyball National Awards Presentation.
Fernandez led the nation with a 0.92 aces per game average and had a career-high 56 aces — three more aces than service errors during the season. Among his top serving performances included a season-high eight aces in a sweep against No. 1/2 Hawai’i days before the remainder of the season was canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The MPSF Player of the Year also was in the nation’s top 15 with a 4.00 kills per game average and had a career-best .343 attack percentage.
Mandilaris, the ConfCarolinas Player of the Year, was third in the nation with a 4.43 kills per game average and in the country’s top 15 with a career-best .412 attack percentage. The opposite had double-digit kills in all but two matches for the defending ConfCarolinas champions, including a match-high 25 kills in an upset sweep against Loyola.
Parapunov, the 2019 Bryan Ivie Award winner and 2020 Big West Player of the Year, was second in the nation with a career-best 4.47 kills per game average and among the national leaders hitting .377. Among the top performances from Parapunov featured season-high 30 kills on a .440 attack percentage as No. 1/2 Hawai’i rallied from a two-game deficit to beat No. 2/1 BYU in five games in both teams’ season finale.
This is the second consecutive year that Fernandez, Mandilaris and Parapunov were each named finalists for the Bryan Ivie Award.
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. A tie in the voting resulted in four finalists for the award this season.
This is the fifth year that Off the Block has presented the Bryan Ivie Award. Previous winners of the award include former Pepperdine All-American opposite Parker Kalmbach in 2015, former BYU All-American opposite Ben Patch in 2016, former Hawai’i All-American opposite Stijn van Tilburg in 2017 and former Long Beach State All-American opposite Kyle Ensing last season.
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 leader in college men’s volleyball coverage.