Anyanwu, Livings Added To AVCA National Player Of The Year Watch List

DALLAS (SMU) – SMU’s Favor Anyanwu and Jadyn Livings have been added to the AVCA National Player of the Year Watch List, introduced by the affiliation on Thursday. Anyanwu and Livings are two of the 17 gamers added to the preseason record, which featured fellow Mustang Malaya Jones.

Livings has recorded double-digit kills in eight straight matches for the Mustangs and has had two 20 or extra kill outings by way of 12 matches in her sophomore season. Livings leads a dynamic SMU offensive assault with 3.83 kills per set, which ranks sixth within the ACC, whereas swinging at a .258 clip. Defensively, Livings additionally provides 1.81 digs per set for the Mustangs. The Colony, Texas, native had her greatest collegiate match towards the then-No. 5 Kentucky Wildcats in Lexington, with 26 terminations, tied for the second most kills in a four-setter at SMU since 2008. Livings earned her first profession convention weekly award as she led the Mustangs with 3.55 kills per set, hitting .421 in SMU’s three residence matches within the DoubleTree Invitational.

Anyanwu has been one of many nation’s most dominant forces on the web by way of 12 matches in her sophomore marketing campaign. She enters week two of ACC play first within the convention and seventeenth within the nation with a complete of 71 blocks. She additionally averages 1.48 blocks per set, which is third greatest within the ACC and in addition seventeenth greatest within the nation. Anyanwu has had 5 or extra blocks in six matches this 12 months, together with an 11-block outing towards UNI, the second-most blocks in a three-set match at SMU since 2015. Offensively, the Rowlett, Texas, native is averaging 1.61 kills per set, hitting at an environment friendly .388 clip, the second-highest on the staff.

The watch record now consists of 47 gamers, an inventory that will probably be narrowed down in November to semifinalists, adopted by the announcement of the finalists in mid-December, and the reveal of the Player of the Year in Kansas City, Mo., on the AVCA Awards Banquet on Friday, Dec. 19.