Shoji Named Men's DI-II Player of the Year

B.J. Hoeptner Evans
Manager, Media Relations and Publications
Phone: (719) 228-6800
E-Mail: bj.evans@usav.org

Click here for NCAA Championship information.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (May 6, 2010) – Kawika Shoji, a four time member of USA Volleyball’s high performance national teams, was named the 2010 American Volleyball Coaches Association Men’s Division I-II National Player of the Year on Wednesday.

Shoji (Honolulu, Hawaii), a senior setter for Stanford University, led Stanford to a 22-6 record this season, as well as Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) regular season and tournament titles and the No. 1 seed heading into tonight’s NCAA Men’s Volleyball Championship semifinals, where it will face-off against No. 4 seed Ohio State.

Shoji played on the U.S. Boys’ Youth National Team during the summers on 2004 and 2005 and played on the U.S. Men’s Junior National Team during the summers of 2006 and 2007. His 2007 team placed seventh at the FIVB Men’s Junior World Championship in Morocco.

According to a Stanford University release, the award was announced during banquet on the Stanford campus held in conjunction with the NCAA Collegiate Championship and presented by U.S. Men's National Team member Kevin Hansen (Newport Beach, Calif.), a former Stanford All-America setter who went on to win an Olympic gold medal with the 2008 U.S. National Team.

"It's a great, great honor," Shoji said. "I am very proud. I have to thank my coaches and especially my teammates. It's a team game, and individual awards come with team accolades. Without our team, this award would not have happened."

Shoji is averaging 13.78 assists, 2.46 digs, 0.89 kills, and 0.61 blocks per set. He has eclipsed Hansen as the Stanford record-holder in career digs, aces and sets played, and should break Hansen's season mark for assists during the NCAA tournament.

"To have him present the award to me meant a lot," Shoji said.

They had met once before, but Shoji had reached out to Hansen over the past two years via e-mail and asked for his advice on setting and breaking into professional volleyball.

"He's been the leader of this team," Hansen said. "And to see it rise to achieve what it has says a lot about his character. He's obviously one of the best setters to come out of this program. And he's got a lot of volleyball left to play."

In addition to being named AVCA Men’s Division I-II National Player of the Year, Shoji is now a three-time AVCA All-American, having garnered First-Team honors for the past two seasons and Second-Team laurels in 2008. He also earned All-MPSF honors a quartet of times and holds the Cardinal’s single-season record for assists after the rally scoring era (1,394). In his four years in a Stanford uniform, Shoji has accumulated 4,376 assists, 796 digs, 452 kills and 104 service aces, while leading the Cardinal from a 3-25 record as a freshman to a national contender in 2010.
 
Shoji becomes the second Cardinal to be named AVCA National Player of the Year. Canyon Ceman was the last Stanford player to earn the distinction in 1993.
Shoji was not the only former USAV high performance men’s volleyball national team player to be honored by the AVCA this year.

NCAA Men's Volleyball Championship Information

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (May 5, 2010) – The NCAA Men's Volleyball Championship begins with the semifinals on Thursday (May 6) at Stanford University's Maples Pavilion in Palo Alto, Calif. They continue on Saturday (May 8) with the championship match.

The matches will be broadcast on several ESPN stations.

NCAA Semifinals • Maples Pavilion at Stanford University • Thursday
No. 2 Cal State Northridge (23-9) vs. No. 3 Penn State (23-7), 6 p.m. PT
No. 1 Stanford (22-6) vs. No. 4 Ohio State (22-7), 8 p.m. PT
NCAA Final • Maples Pavilion at Stanford University • Saturday
Semifinal winners, 4 p.m. PT

The ESPN family of networks will broadcast each match live, with Justin Kutcher and Karch Kiraly calling the action:
• The Northridge-Penn State semifinal will air on ESPN2, ESPNU, and ESPN3.com.
• The Stanford-Ohio State semifinal will air live on ESPNU, and will be rebroadcast at 10 a.m. PDT Friday on ESPN2.
• The championship final will live air on ESPN2 and ESPN3.com.
• Gametracker live stats will be available through gostanford.com. Look for the NCAA Tournament Central page for links, schedules, and results.

Tournament History

Year	National Champion	Score	Runner-up	City
1970	UCLA (24–1)	3–0	Long Beach State	Los Angeles
1971	UCLA (29–1)	3–2	UC Santa Barbara	Los Angeles
1972	UCLA (27–7)	3–2	San Diego State	Muncie, Ind.
1973	San Diego State (21–5)	3–1	Long Beach State	San Diego
1974	UCLA (30–5)	3–2	UC Santa Barbara	Santa Barbara, Calif.
1975	UCLA (27–8)	3–1	UC Santa Barbara	Los Angeles
1976	UCLA (15–2)	3–2	San Diego State	Muncie, Ind.
1977	Southern California (18–1)	3–1	Ohio State	Los Angeles
1978	Pepperdine (21–4)	3–2	UCLA	Columbus, Ohio
1979	UCLA (30–0)	3–1	Southern California	Los Angeles
1980	Southern California (22–6)	3–1	UCLA	Muncie, Ind.
1981	UCLA (32–3)	3–2	Southern California	Santa Barbara, Calif.
1982	UCLA (29–0)	3–0	Penn State	University Park, Pa.
1983	UCLA (27–4)	3–0	Pepperdine	Columbus, Ohio
1984	UCLA (38–0)	3–1	Pepperdine	Los Angeles
1985	Pepperdine (25–2)	3–2	Southern California	Los Angeles
1986	Pepperdine (22–7)	3–2	Southern California	University Park, Pa.
1987	UCLA (38–3)	3–0	Southern California	Los Angeles
1988	USC (34–4)	3–2	UC Santa Barbara	Fort Wayne, Ind.
1989	UCLA (29–5)	3–1	Stanford	Los Angeles
1990	Southern California (26–7)	3–1	Long Beach State	Fairfax, Va.
1991	Long Beach State (31–4)	3–1	Southern California	Honolulu
1992	Pepperdine (24–4)	3–0	Stanford	Muncie, Ind.
1993	UCLA (24–3)	3–0	Cal St. Northridge	Los Angeles
1994	Penn State (26–3)	3–2	UCLA	Fort Wayne, Ind.
1995	UCLA (31–1)	3–0	Penn State	Springfield, Mass.
1996	UCLA (26–5)	3–2	Hawaii	Los Angeles
1997	Stanford (27–4)	3–2	UCLA	Columbus, Oho
1998	UCLA (28–4)	3–0	Pepperdine	Honolulu
1999	BYU (30–1)	3–0	Long Beach State	Los Angeles
2000	UCLA (29–5)	3–0	Ohio State	Fort Wayne, Ind.
2001	BYU (23–4)	3–0	UCLA	Long Beach, Calif.
2002	Hawaii (24–8)±	3–1	Pepperdine	University Park, Pa.
2003	Lewis (29–6)±	3–2	BYU	Long Beach, Calif.
2004	BYU (29–4)	3–2	Long Beach State	Honolulu
2005	Pepperdine (25–2)	3–2	UCLA	Los Angeles
2006	UCLA (26–12)	3–0	Penn State	University Park, Pa.
2007	UC Irvine (29–5)	3–1	IPFW	Columbus, Ohio
2008	Penn State (30–1)	3–1	Pepperdine	Irvine, Calif.
2009	UC Irvine (27–5)	3–2	Southern California	Provo, Utah

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