Dec. 2, 2008

GREENSBORO, N.C. - Athletes from eight of the 12 Atlantic Coast Conference's member institutions have been selected to the league's first- and second-team All-ACC volleyball squads, announced today by the conference. League co-champion North Carolina, who finished the season at 15-5 in a tie with Duke, led all schools with four student-athletes on the two nine person teams. The honors were selected by a vote of the league's head coaches.

Miami and Clemson both placed three on the All-conference teams, while co-champion Duke, Georgia Tech and Florida State each had two selections. Wake Forest and Virginia Tech completed the teams with one selection each.

The ACC All-Freshmen team, which honors six of the conference's top first-year performers from the season, featured two student-athletes from Duke and one from Virginia, Miami, Wake Forest and Virginia Tech.

Clemson's Danielle Hepburn, a middle blocker from Miami, Fla., was voted this year's ACC Player of the Year, becoming the second-ever Tiger to win the award and the first since 1999. During the regular season, Hepburn led the Tiger team that finished the league season with 14 wins and a bid to the NCAA Volleyball Championships. She was named the league's player of the week three times in 2008. Hepburn extended her career league record for blocks per set to 1.42 and she averaged 1.47 blocks per set in the season as well as 3.98 kills per set to lead the league in both departments.

Lane Carico of Miami became the first Hurricane to win league Freshman of the Year honors since the school joined the conference in 2004. Carico, an outside hitter from Manhattan Beach, Calif. became the second consecutive Californian to earn the honor. Carico ranked among the league leaders in kills and service aces. She finished sixth in both kills with 3.18 per set and service aces with 3.18 per set. She played 116 sets in all 32 matches for the `Canes.

Miami head coach Nicole Lantagne Welch was voted as the league's top coach after she added 12 wins to her team's total in 2007. For Welch, it was her first coach of the year honor in the ACC and Miami's first since joining the league in 2004. Welch, in her eighth season finished the year at 26-6 and 14-6 in league play to tie for third place after being picked to place ninth in the pre-season poll. MIami had its best season since 2002 when the `Canes reached the Sweet 16 and finished runner-up in the Big East at 27-6. Miami is second in the league in service aces and third in hitting percentage for the year.