FRISCO, Texas – The Southland Conference regular season champion Southeastern Louisiana University volleyball team took home two individual awards as the SLC announced its All-Conference teams on Wednesday with Rachel Hartmann being named the Newcomer of the Year while Jeremy White won the Katrinka Jo Crawford Award as the SLC's Coach of the Year with three players named All-Conference.
 
White, in his fifth season as the head coach of the Lady Lions, takes home his second Katrinka Jo Crawford Award as the SLC Coach of the Year as SLU finished the regular season with a 17-1 record, the best record in-conference since the program joined the Southland Conference 25 years ago. He also guided the Lady Lions to what is currently a 20-match win streak which is also the longest win streak for the program since the mid-1990s as well. Among the wins White has led the team to this season, a five-set, true road win over a Texas State team which was receiving votes in the AVCA Top 25 Coaches Poll at the time of the match as well as knocking off LSU in another true road match in four sets. White previously won the Katrinka Jo Crawford Award following the spring 2021 COVID season and is the reigning Louisiana Coach of the Year.
 
Hartmann, a junior setter and opposite from Slidell, La., made a statement in her first season in the green and gold on her way to being named the SLC's Newcomer of the Year and a First Team All-Conference selection. Hartmann finished the regular season with a .354 attack percentage, fourth-best in the conference, on her way to 3.21 kills per set, seventh-most in the SLC. She was third on the team with 27 service aces, as was her 60 total blocks which helped get her to 3.76 points per set, fourth-most in the SLC. She also finished the regular season averaging 2.33 digs per set and 0.67 assists per set. While this is her first All-Conference award with Southeastern, this is her second total All-Conference award as the Southern States Athletic Conference put her on its All-Conference First Team following the 2022 season when she was at William Carey University.
 
Joining Hartmann on the All-Southland First Team is Kailin Newsome. Newsome, a senior outside hitter from Houston, Texas, was the Southland's top scorer at 4.47 points per set. Her 3.88 kills per set was the second most was second in the SLC with her 407 total kills the most in all of the SLC. She was also the conference's best server with 0.47 service aces per set and 49 total service aces. She was second on the team with 2.79 digs per set while adding 22 blocks and 24 assists. Newsome has been named All-Southland Conference all three years she's been at SLU.
 
Cicily Hidalgo, a junior outside hitter from Opelousas, La., was honored among the All-Conference Second Team. She averaged 2.63 kills per set on a .250 attack percentage while scoring 3.04 points per set. She also had 17 assists, 16 service aces, tallied 37 total blocks, and averaged 2.70 digs per set. Like Newsome, this marks the third time in three seasons at Southeastern that Hidalgo has been honored on a postseason All-Conference team.
 
Now holding the SLC regular season championship and winners of 20-straight, the Lady Lions (26-4, 17-1 SLC) now look to win their second-straight Conference Tournament Championship when they head to Corpus Christi for the 2023 SLC Volleyball Tournament, which runs November 16^th-19^th, as its number one seed.
 
Holder of a double-bye as a top-two seed, SLU will make its debut in the tournament in Saturday's semifinal round, taking on the winner of Friday's quarterfinal match between the #4-seed Houston Christian (15-16, 13-5 SLC) and the winner of Thursday's first-round match between #5-seed Northwestern State (13-16, 9-9 SLC) and #8-seed Texas A&M-Commerce (9-22, 5-13 SLC). Opening serve of Saturday's semifinal match is set for 2:00 p.m. in the Dugan Wellness Center on the campus of Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. The entire 2023 Southland Conference Volleyball Championship Tournament will be live streamed on ESPN+ with live stats also available for all matches.
  
DIGGIN' IT CLUB / S CLUB
Fans interested in becoming active supporters of the Southeastern volleyball program are encouraged to join the Diggin' It Club. Lion volleyball alums are encouraged to join the exclusive S Club, which is restricted to Southeastern athletic letter winners.
 
All membership fees and donations to both the Diggin' It Club and S Club (volleyball) are available for the exclusive use of the Southeastern volleyball program. Membership information is available by contacting the Lion Athletics Association at laa@southeastern.edu or (985) 549-5091 or visiting www.LionUp.com.
 
SOCIAL MEDIA
For more information on Lady Lions Volleyball, follow @LionUpVB or @JWhiteSLU on Twitter, @LionUpVB on Instagram, like /SLUathletics on Facebook and subscribe to the SLUathletics YouTube channel.