NORFOLK, Va. – Coppin State's volleyball team placed three Eagles on the All-MEAC First Team and a pair on the MEAC All-Rookie Team, it was announced by the league office on Thursday night.
TaKenya Stafford,
Coco Figueroa and
Sophia Bertotti Metoyer all received First Team accolades while freshmen
McKenzie Parks and
Payton Swinton were named to the All-Rookie Team.
This is the fourth-straight season that Coppin has had at least three players on the First Team and the sixth-straight time that multiple players were selected. At least one freshman from each of head coach
Tim Walsh's recruiting classes, starting in 2018, have been named to the All-Rookie Team.
Stafford is a repeat First Team All-MEAC selection after ranking third in the conference in kills/set (3.62) and points/set (3.95) while sitting eighth in both digs/set (2.82) and hitting percentage (.251) despite recording the most attacks in the league. A redshirt junior from Los Angeles, Calif., Stafford leads the MEAC with 16 double doubles and added 34 blocks, 18 aces and 18 assists.
Posting four matches with at least 20 kills, Stafford recorded 22 in back-to-back matches at Maryland Eastern Shore and against Delaware State. Stafford also recorded 21 kills with 15 digs at Robert Morris and another 21 kills with 12 digs at Norfolk State. She had double-digit kills in 22 matches and at least ten digs in 17 matches.
In just two seasons with the Eagles, she now ranks fifth in CSU history with 754 kills and is nearing the top ten with 599 digs. Her 391 kills this season are the sixth-most in Coppin single-season history and her 427.0 total points are the fifth-most.
After earning MEAC All-Rookie Team accolades as a freshman last season, Figueroa was the top libero in the conference this season, averaging a league-high 4.62 digs/set in conference play. A sophomore from Bayamon, Puerto Rico, Figueroa was a four-time MEAC Defensive Player of the Week and finished the regular season with 405 digs (3.82/set), 110 assists (1.04/set) and a team-high 37 aces (0.35/set).
Figueroa had double-digit digs in 22 matches which included three contests with at least 20 digs. She totaled a career-high 27 digs while adding a career-high 11 assists for her first career double-double at NC Central. Figueroa also served multiple aces in 11 matches with a career-high six against Norfolk State.
For her career, Figueroa is just outside Coppin's top ten with 588 digs (2.88/set) to go with 63 aces in 61 matches.
Bertotti Metoyer has been one of the MEAC leaders in both hitting percentage and blocks in her first season with the Eagles. A fifth year from Spokane, Wash., Bertotti Metoyer ranks second on the team with 232 kills (2.17/set) while leading the way in hitting percentage (.315) and blocks (72; 0.67/set). The 6-foot-2 middle blocker has been even more productive in MEAC play, recording 2.33 kills per set while ranking fourth in the MEAC with a .333 hitting percentage and eighth with 0.77 blocks/set. Her 40 total blocks in conference games is the third-most in the MEAC.
Recording double-digit kills in eight matches, she had a season-high 16 kills and six blocks at Maryland Eastern Shore. She also had five matches where she tallied at least seven kills without an error and 13 matches with at least three blocks.
Starting her career at Seattle University and CSU Bakersfield where she played two years apiece, Bertotti Metoyer has totaled 507 kills on .228 hitting to go with 239 blocks in 97 matches.
Parks is one of the top freshman blockers in the MEAC and ranked second on the Eagles with 54 total blocks (0.59/set). A native of McDonough, Ga., Parks totaled 86 kills (0.93/set) on .192 swinging for the season. Parks had a season-high eight kills along with three blocks at St. John's and put up at least three blocks in ten matches. She had a season-high six blocks against Morgan State in October.
Swinton finished the regular season with 83 kills (1.48/set) on .129 hitting to go with 21 digs and ten blocks. A native of Odenton, Md., Swinton had a season-high 11 kills against Penn and tallied at least five kills in nine matches. Swinton recorded seven kills on .417 swinging with three blocks at Duquesne and matched those kills at Norfolk State.
