AVCA All-America Teams Announced

The American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) presented its ninth annual AVCA All-America awards for men's volleyball at the NCAA Men's Volleyball National Championship Banquet Wednesday at the Bradley International Ballroom on the campus of UCLA in Los Angeles. Five players who earned first team All-America honors last season were again named to the first team in 1999, led by two-time AVCA National Player of the Year George Roumain of Pepperdine. The others to repeat as first-team selections include Ryan Millar (BYU), Adam Naeve (UCLA), Victor Rivera (Lewis) and Brandon Taliaferro (UCLA).

Roumain and Millar joined a select group when they were named to the AVCA All-America first team for the third time. Only three other players - Nygaard (1993-95), Penn State's Ivan Contreras (1995-97) and Stanford's Matt Fuerbringer (1994, 96-97) - have earned that distinction.

BYU's Ossie Antonetti received AVCA All-American honors for a second-straight year, while junior setter Hector Lebron received second-team All-America honors for the first time in his career. Lebron becomes BYU's 19th All-American since the 1990 season.

All totaled fifty-five student-athletes representing 19 schools were nominated for AVCA All-America status. The selections were made by the AVCA Men's Volleyball

All-America Committee: chairperson Mark Pavlik (Penn State); Arnie Ball (IPFW); Sean Byron (East Stroudsburg); Rick McLaughlin (Loyola Marymount); and Ray Ratelle (Long Beach State).

AVCA First-Team All-America

Ossie Antonetti - Brigham Young OPP Sr. 6-1 San Juan, Puerto Rico

Ryan Millar - Brigham Young MB Sr. 6-7 Lancaster, Calif.

Adam Naeve - UCLA MB Jr. 6-10 Westchester, Calif.

Victor Rivera - Lewis OH Sr. 6-5 Naranjito, Puerto Rico

George Roumain - Pepperdine OH Sr. 6-6 Parkland, Fla.

Hector Soto - IPFW OH Jr. 6-5 Arroyo, Puerto Rico

Donald Suxho - USC S Jr. 6-5 Korce, Albania

Brandon Taliaferro - UCLA S Jr. 6-5 San Clemente, Calif.

Scott Wong - Pepperdine OH So. 6-5 Pearl City, Hawai'i

AVCA Second-Team All-America

Andre Breuer - Hawai'i MB Jr. 6-9 Berlin, Germany

Rene Esteves - Ohio State MB Jr. 6-5 San Juan, Puerto Rico

Dave McKienzie - Long Beach State OPP So. 6-3 Littleton, Calif.

Reid Priddy - Loyola Marymount OH Jr. 6-5 Phoenix, Ariz.

Matt Prosser - Long Beach State MB So. 6-7 Ventura, Calif.

Donnie Rafter - UC Irvine OH Sr. 6-0 Tustin, Calif.

Chris Seiffert - Long Beach State S Jr. 6-4 Laguna Niguel, Calif.

Chris Gisslen - IPFW S Jr. 6-7 Red Wing, Minn.

Hector Lebron - Brigham Young S Jr. 6-2 San Juan, Puerto Rico