2022 AVCA NCAA DII All-America Volleyball Teams
For the fourth time in five full seasons, the Hillsdale College volleyball team is bringing home multiple All-American honors this fall.
The Chargers had two players make the cut for the 2022 NCAA Division II All-America teams announced by the American Volleyball Coaches Association on Wednesday afternoon.
For the second-straight season, senior outside hitter Karoline Shelton made the AVCA's NCAA DII third team, while sophomore libero Alli Wiese earned honorable mention honors for her first-ever All-American recognition at the collegiate level.
With the second-straight third team honor, Shelton becomes just the fifth player in program history to earn All-American honors in consecutive seasons, joining former teammates Paige VanderWall and Allyssa Van Wienen, as well as Hillsdale College Athletic Hall of Famers Ashlee Crowder and Clara Leutheuser.
Throughout her five seasons at Hillsdale, Shelton did her part to ensure her name belongs among those all-time greats in Chargers history. The versatile senior graduates having finished with the third-most kills (1,520) and sixth-most digs (1,634) in program history, and is just one of two Chargers players ever to surpass 1,000 kills and 1,000 digs in her career, along with Chargers legend Cassandra Cole.
The senior from Shawnee, Kansas was especially impressive this season as one of Hillsdale's top offensive weapons, finishing with a career-high 433 kills, the third-most in a single season in program history in the 25-point rally scoring era just behind the two best seasons from legend and Hillsdale College Athletic Hall of Famer Ashlee Crowder. She also chipped in 423 digs, the second-most by any Charger in 2022 on the way to G-MAC Tournament MVP honors, helping Hillsdale win the conference tournament title in hostile territory.
Shelton was the Spring 2021 G-MAC Player of the Year, one of just three Chargers in program history to earn first team All-Conference honors for four consecutive seasons, and helped lead the Chargers to five straight G-MAC Tournament titles, four straight NCAA Tournament appearances, back-to-back Midwest Regional finals and the 2021 NCAA DII Elite Eight. Hillsdale was 131-26 during her five seasons here, and an impressive 72-2 in G-MAC regular season matches.
While Shelton finishes her career with one final major award, the honorable mention All-America honor is perhaps the first of many for Wiese, who in three seasons is already completely rewriting the record book for liberos at Hillsdale College.
The sophomore from Mattawan, Michigan was sensational in 2022, breaking her own program record for most digs in a single season with 721, in the process becoming the first Charger in program history to surpass the 700 dig mark. During the season she had three matches with 38 or more digs, including a 40-dig match in a four-set win over Walsh on Nov. 4 that tied the program record for digs in a single match, held by her older sister, Taylor.
Wiese also was lethal from the service line, serving up 55 aces, just three shy of the program's record for aces in a single season as well. Her back-row heroics played a pivotal role in several Charger victories, including Hillsdale's five-set upset of second-seeded Lewis in the NCAA Tournament.
In just three seasons for the Chargers, one a partial season due to Covid-19, Wiese has totaled 1,655 digs, good for fifth all-time in program history, and is on pace to break the career record of 2,251 digs held by her older sister next season. With two more seasons of eligibility remaining, Wiese has a shot to become the first Charger to break 3,000 digs in her career.
She is one of just seven liberos in the country at the NCAA DII level to receive All-American honors from the AVCA in 2022, and the only sophomore or freshman in the group.