Mancini Named Player of the Year; Four Women Receive All-CCC Honors

Mancini goes for a kill against Springfield.

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. - Emma Mancini (Lynnfield, Mass.) was named Player of the Year as the Endicott women's volleyball team received four total honors from the Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC), as was announced by the Office of the Commissioner on Monday. Following the regular season that saw Endicott post a 19-9 record overall and a record of 8-1 in CCC play, Endicott saw two women receive First Team honors, one receive a Second Team nod, and one on the Third Team. 

In addition to her CCC Player of the Year honor, Emma Mancini was named to the All-CCC First Team, along with setter Zoey Gifford (Natick, Mass.). On the All-CCC Second team was outside Alex Dippel (Fallston, Md.) while right side Lauren Sheehan (Bainbridge Island, Wash.) rounded out the honors with her All-CCC Third Team nod. Mancini's Player of the Year nod marks the third straight year that an Endicott player has claimed the honor. 

EMMA MANCINI | OUTSIDE | JUNIOR | LYNNFIELD, MASS.

Emma Mancini's honors come during a season in which she has re-written Endicott women's volleyball's record books. The junior has set the single-match kill record twice in 2017, first with a 27 kill effort against Plymouth State, before breaking that just one week later in the team's 3-2 upset of Tufts. In the win over the Jumbos, Emma posted 29 kills with just seven errors on 60 swings to hit .367. In the last week of the regular season, the outside set the school record for kills in a four set match with her 28 kills in the 3-1 win over regionally-ranked Coast Guard. Mancini currently has 383 kills on the season, good for fifth all-time in school history, as the team readies for CCC Tournament play. This is her first All-CCC nod.

ZOEY GIFFORD | SETTER | SOPHOMORE | NATICK, MASS.

Zoey Gifford, a sophomore, finished the regular season with 775 assists and 204 digs, which included nine double-double performances. Overall, she averaged 8.52 assists/set and 2.24 digs/set while guiding Endicott to a 19-9 regular season record. In conference play, the setter was even more impressive, averaging 10.60 assists/set and 3.24 digs/set while the Gulls hit .216 in CCC play, good for second. Her 45 assists in the team's 3-0 sweep of Dallas tied for the second-highest assist total in a three set match, while her 52 assist performance in the team's 3-2 upset of Tufts, a team that was ranked #2 in the region at the time, tied for eighth. This is Gifford's second All-CCC honor as she was named to the Third Team as a freshman.

ALEX DIPPEL | OUTSIDE | SOPHOMORE | FALLSTON, MD.

After finishing the season tied for second in kills/set in conference play with 3.94, Alex Dippel was named to the All-CCC Second Team. In 19 matches played overall on the season, the sophomore tallied 172 kills and 84 digs, averaging 3.07 kills/set and 1.50 digs/set. Dippel posted double-digit kill totals 10 times in her 19 matches, including a career-high 18 in the team's 3-2 against Amherst. The Fallston, Md. native went off for 14 kills twice against CCC opponents, posting a 14-4-34 (.294) line in the 3-0 sweep of Wentworth to open CCC play, before then posting a 14-2-24 (.500) line in the teams' 3-0 sweep of cross-town rival Gordon. This is the first All-CCC nod of her career.

LAUREN SHEEHAN | OPPOSITE | SENIOR | BAINBRIDGE ISLAND, WASH.

Lauren Sheehan, a senior opposite, finished the season with 175 kills, good for second on the team. The Bainbridge Island, Wash. native reached the double-digit kill plateau eight times on the season, including a season-high 17 twice. In the team's 3-2 upset of Tufts, Sheehan posted 10 kills, while her 15 kill effort against Roger Williams was her third-highest kill total of the season. In conference play, Sheehan averaged 2.52 kills/set and 1.19 digs/set as she helped lead the Gulls to the #2 seed in the upcoming CCC tournament. This is Sheehan's third All-CCC nod of her career as she was named to the Second Team in each of the last two seasons. 

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