Sander, McGown honored by Volleyball Magazine

PROVO, Utah—Taylor Sander was named Volleyball Magazine Player of the Year and Volleyball Magazine All-America First Team Tuesday, capping off a successful career at BYU.

Head coach Chris McGown was also named coach of the Volleyball Magazine Third Team.

Sander led the nation in points with 5.48 per set and was second in kills with 4.60 per set. A four-time Volleyball Magazine All-American during his time at BYU, Sander also received the 2014 American Volleyball Coaches Association Player of the Year award, as well as AVCA All-America First Team honors, MPSF Player of the Year, All-MPSF First Team, MPSF Tournament MVP, MPSF Player of the Week twice and AVCA Player of the Week.

This is Sander’s second consecutive Volleyball Magazine Player of the Year award. He won the 2013 honors after leading the Cougars to a second-place national finish.

During his career Sander secured two all-time and six rally-scoring era school records. The outside hitter holds the BYU all-time single-match record for service aces (nine vs. UC San Diego, Jan. 18) and career service aces (182). In the rally-scoring era, Sander is No. 1 in career kills (1,743), career attempts (3,464), career service aces (182), season attempts (1,021 in 2014), season service aces (55 in 2014) and aces in a match (nine).

Sander is now playing with the men’s national team in World League competition.

McGown completed his third year at the helm of the Cougars, securing a 21-9 overall record for his third-straight season with more than 20 wins. McGown has taken his team to the NCAA tournament twice and won back-to-back Mountain Pacific Sports Federation regular-season and tournament titles in 2013 and 2014.

For a complete list of honorees, see the official Volleyball Magazine release.