LAGUNA NIGUEL, Calif. (Nov. 7, 2023) – Freshman
Mia D'Amato (Bakersfield, Calif. / Garces) of the Whittier College volleyball team found herself at the center of this year's SCIAC year-end awards, taking both SCIAC Newcomer of the Year and Second Team All-SCIAC honors. Teammates
Nadine Oronoz (Whittier, Calif. / Rio Hondo College) and
Xenia Villagomez (Corona, Calif. / Santiago) joined D'Amato as Second Team recipients for 2023.
D'Amato is the first Whittier volleyball athlete to win SCIAC Newcomer of the Year since outside hitter Ashley Whittall in 2017. The freshman made a formidable duo with classmate
Brenna Kusleika (Upland, Calif. / Claremont) from the very beginning of the season, but both players came into their own as legitimate point-winning options for Head Coach
Chris Duarte-McDermott's Poets. After providing early to the team as a rotational player at the net, D'Amato came into her own as an opposite side hitter against
Southwestern University during the Poets' trip to Texas in mid-September, when she delivered 13 kills, a .400 hitting percentage and seven assisted blocks in a five-set victory over the Pirates.
The Bakersfield-native's evolution came at a great time, as the Southwestern game would be the Poets' last before the SCIAC schedule began to take full effect. D'Amato would go on to hit double-digit kills on three more occasions, posting a career-high 14 kills at Chapman University to open the month of October. All the while, she maintained a .248 hitting percentage that would be good for second on the team, and her 167 kills, 14 solo blocks, and 76 assisted blocks helped foster a reputation as the SCIAC's preeminent freshman athlete of the 2023 season.
D'Amato was not the only Poet to earn Second Team honors, however, as junior Oronoz and senior Villagomez joined her as conference recipients. Villagomez posted a career season in the middle, finishing with 192 kills and a team-leading .253 hitting percentage, while providing the team with the senior leadership it required to go on the 18-consecutive-set heater that helped put Whittier in the SCIAC Postseason Tournament. Oronoz, meanwhile, came to the team this year from Rio Hondo College, making an instant impact as the team's libero for virtually the entire 26-game schedule. Though she featured primarily as an outside hitter at Rio Hondo, Oronoz proved to be a natural at libero, winning
SCIAC Defensive Athlete of the Week towards the beginning of the SCIAC slate and finishing third in conference digs while leading the SCIAC in service aces. Her conference ace count for the year (34) is the most for any SCIAC volleyball player in nearly a decade.
In addition Whittier's collection of Second Team honors, junior
Analise Kusleika (Upland, Calif. / Claremont) won the SCIAC Character Award, which you can read more about here.
The Poets are currently in preparations for their first SCIAC Postseason Tournament game in eight years. The team will travel to No. 8 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges, the SCIAC's top-seeded team, on Thursday, Nov. 9 at 7 p.m.
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