Czerniak, Bragg, and Frey Receive NAIA All-American Recognition

NAIA Women’s Volleyball All-Americans | TU Honors Page

KANSAS CITY – The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics recently announced its yearly collection of Women’s Volleyball All-American awards, in which the Taylor volleyball team boasted three players to receive All-American status in a single season for the first time since 2004.

The Trojans went 33-9 the last time such a feat was achieved, when Linsey Taatjes, Christine Amony, and Jen Hale were each dubbed NAIA All-Americans, though none of that Trojan trio earned higher than a third-team nod.

In 2022 the Trojans posted a similarly impressive record of 31-7, including a perfect 17-0 mark at home, en route to a pair of Crossroads League championships, an NAIA Opening Round win, and a trip to Sioux City, Iowa, to compete in the NAIA National Tournament pool play.

Throughout it all, seniors Ryan Czerniak and Kacy Bragg, alongside junior, Anna Frey, forcefully led the Trojan offensive attack, each earning NAIA All-American status by year’s end.

Czerniak highlighted the list by earning NAIA First-Team All-American recognition, which marked just the fifth first-team award in Taylor program history and the first since Kelsey Pritchard did so in 2011. Czerniak was one of 14 players from across the country to earn first-team status, while also serving as the lone Crossroads League player to do so.

TU’s fifth-year senior right-side hitter from Danville, Indiana, finished the 2022 campaign with 453 total kills struck at a clip of 3.57 kills per set, all the while maintaining a remarkable hitting percentage of .385. Czerniak’s hitting percentage not only led the entire NAIA, but it also served as the third-best single-season mark in Taylor program history.

Czerniak’s strong left hand energized an electric Trojan offense throughout the entire 2022 season, as evidenced by a total of 28 matches in which she reached double-digit kills. Further, Czerniak surpassed 15 kills in a dozen different matches, including a career-high 26 kills against Thomas More on August 27.

Throughout Taylor’s memorable 2022 campaign, Czerniak became the 23rd player in program history to reach 1,000-career kills. Along the way, she was named the Crossroads League Attacker of the Week three times and was once honored as the NAIA National Attacker of the Week, which marked the first player to do so in the head coach Erin Luthy era.

Czerniak was also named the Crossroads League Player of the Year, the first Trojan in over a…