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IRVINE, Calif. - The Big West revealed its 2022 postseason honors on Wednesday, with three-peat conference champion Hawai’i picking up four of the five major awards.

Amber Igiede, Kate Lang, Caylen Alexander and Robyn Ah Mow of the Rainbow Wahine are The Big West’s Player of the Year, Setter of the Year, Freshman of the Year and Coach of the Year, respectively. UC Santa Barbara’s Macall Peed is The Big West Libero of the Year. The setter and libero recognitions are brand new to this year’s awards slate.

Igiede and Lang are two of four UH players to start all 28 matches thus far as Hawai’i (22-6, 19-1 Big West), the No. 8 seed in the Stanford Quarter, is in Northern California to take on LSU (15-13, 9-9 SEC) in the first round of the 2022 NCAA Division I Women’s Volleyball Championship this Friday, Dec. 2, on the campus of fifth-ranked top seed Stanford. A product of Baton Rouge, La., Igiede will go up against the hometown Tigers for the first time in her collegiate career.

Igiede has eclipsed the 500-point mark for the season at 505, and is approaching 400 kills with 390. Both are career highs for the fourth-year junior middle blocker who is averaging team bests of 4.90 points, 3.79 kills and 1.30 blocks per set while ranking second on the squad with a career-high 29 aces. Igiede tops The Big West with a career-best .439 (390-68-734) hitting percentage, which is fourth nationally, and is second in the conference in blocking and third in kills per set. Igiede has managed one double-double, at home against then-23rd-ranked UCLA on Sept. 4 with 11 kills and 10 total blocks (two solo). The veteran star’s season has included 26 efforts of double-figure kills, two with 20-plus including a career-high 24 in another five-setter at UC Davis on Oct. 29, and three instances of an attack rate of .600 or better.

Igiede gives the Rainbow Wahine three successive Big West Player of the Year selections, following former teammates Norene Iosia in 2019 and Brooke Van Sickle in 2021. The distinction has now gone to a Hawai’i standout a total of 12 times, matching Long Beach State for the most in league history.

Lang is second in The Big West at 10.24 assists per set, having dished out a career-best 1,055 of them over 103 frames. The third-year sophomore out of Keller, Texas, is also third on the team with 24 aces, and tied for third with 214 digs (2.08 per set). Lang has posted eight double-doubles in 2022, with season bests of 55 assists (twice) and 17 digs, all but one match with 20-plus assists, 21 with 30-plus, 11 with 40-plus, and five with 50 or more. Lang is 44 assists shy of reaching the 2,000 milestone as a collegian.

Peed, a fourth-year junior, appeared in all 30 contests for Big West runner-up UC Santa Barbara and is third in the conference at 4.28 digs per set (466 over 109 frames). The San Diego native and second-year transfer from national power Penn State is third for the Gauchos with 28 service aces, and fourth with 116 set assists. Peed collected a career-high 30 digs in a five-set triumph at UC San Diego on Sept. 23, and produced 26 efforts of double-digit digs, including the last 22 in a row, and six of 20-plus digs. Peed eclipsed the 1,000-dig mark for a college career (1,016) in the season finale against Hawai’i.

Alexander has appeared in all 28 contests, drawing eight starts. The outside hitter is averaging 3.21 points, 2.75 kills and 1.19 digs per set, ranking third on the team in points and kills while leading with 33 aces. Alexander has 15 matches in double-figure kills, with a high of 18 on two occasions, and posted a trio of double-doubles. The native of Alpharetta, Ga., and 2022 graduate of Centennial High School in Roswell, Ga., was The Big West Freshman of the Week a league-best six times. Alexander is UH’s first Big West Freshman of the Year since Hanna Hellvig in 2019, and fifth in all since 1988.

Ah Mow has directed Hawai’i to a 22-6 mark overall, including 19-1 for The Big West schedule with just a lone road defeat at third-place Cal Poly on Oct. 15. The Rainbow Wahine clinched at least a share of the conference crown with a home sweep of CSU Bakersfield on Nov. 20, and wrapped up a third consecutive outright title while punching their return ticket to the NCAA Championship with a come-from-behind 3-2 victory in Santa Barbara last Friday, Nov. 25. UH is currently on the conference’s longest 2022 win streak of 12 in a row, after an earlier eight-match stretch prior to that defeat in San Luis Obispo. The Rainbow Wahine thus head into the NCAA Championship as victors of 20 of their last 21. They went 13-2 at home.

Ah Mow earns a third straight Big West Coach of the Year award, having shared it in 2019 after taking over for six-time recipient Dave Shoji ahead of the 2017 campaign. Ah Mow is just the second back-to-back-to-back winner since the first one was given in 1984, following legendary former UCSB leader Kathy Gregory from 2002-04.

A change has been made this year to the makeup of the All-Big West women’s volleyball teams, with eight each on first and second squads, rather than a 16-member first team. As such, Igiede and Lang, the lone setter on the squad, were joined on the 2022 All-Big West First Team by junior teammate and outside hitter Riley Wagoner, the Cal Poly pin-hitting duo of senior Maia Dvoracek and redshirt sophomore Tommi Stockham, the UC Santa Barbara tandem of junior outside hitter Michelle Ohwobete and senior middle blocker Deni Wilson, and UC Irvine junior middle Onye Ofoegbu.

Alexander and Peed are on the second team with the Long Beach State trio of Morgan Chacon, Katie Kennedy and redshirt freshman setter Zayna Meyer, UC San Diego’s Ava McInnes, Josephine Ough of UC Davis, and UC Irvine’s Joy Umeh.

Seven clubs and nine states are represented on the two All-Big West teams, with eight California products. The conference’s remaining four members each garnered honorable mentions, of which there were 11, for a total of 27 student-athletes recognized. UCSB accounted for five, followed by UH, Cal Poly and LBSU with four apiece.

Igiede, Lang, Ofoegbu, Ohwobete, Stockham and Wilson are repeat first-teamers. Kennedy, Ough, Peed and Umeh were also on the 2021 first team. In 2019, Dvoracek, Igiede and Ough were among the 16 first-team picks. Ohwobete was the 2021 Big West Freshman of the Year.

Additionally, seven rookies were chosen to the 2022 Big West All-Freshman Team. Alexander headlined the group that also included Meyer, fellow setter Emme Bullis and Lizzy Markovska of Cal Poly, UCI libero Campbell Jensen, Cal State Fullerton middle Bianca Martinez, and CSUN libero Breanna Mitchell.

The NCAA Championship first-round tilt between Hawai’i and LSU this Friday is set for a 4:30 p.m. PT/2:30 p.m. HT first serve inside Pac-12 champion Stanford’s Maples Pavilion. The contest will air live on ESPN+, with the winner advancing to a second-round match at the same venue the following night at 6 p.m. PT/4 p.m. HT against either the host Cardinal (24-4, 19-1 Pac-12) or Pepperdine (19-10, 10-8 WCC).
 

The Big West 2022 Women's Volleyball All-Conference Team
Player of the Year:	Amber Igiede, Hawai'i
Setter of the Year:	Kate Lang, Hawai'i
Libero of the Year:	Macall Peed, UC Santa Barbara
Freshman of the Year:	Caylen Alexander, Hawai'i
Coach of the Year:	Robyn Ah Mow, Hawai'i
All-Big West First Team
Student-Athlete	Year	Position	Institution	Hometown
Maia Dvoracek	Sr.	OPP	Cal Poly	Truckee, Calif.
Amber Igiede	Jr.	MB	Hawai’i	Baton Rouge, La.
Kate Lang	So.	S	Hawai’i	Keller, Texas
Onye Ofoegbu	Jr.	MB	UC Irvine	Cerritos, Calif.
Michelle Ohwobete	Jr.	OH	UC Santa Barbara	Oakland, Calif.
Tommi Stockham	R-So.	OH	Cal Poly	Las Vegas, Nev.
Riley Wagoner	Jr.	OH	Hawai’i	Dublin, Ohio
Deni Wilson	Sr.	MB	UC Santa Barbara	Los Angeles, Calif.
All-Big West Second Team
Student-Athlete	Year	Position	Institution	Hometown
Caylen Alexander	Fr.	OH	Hawai’i	Alpharetta, Ga.
Morgan Chacon	R-Jr.	OH	Long Beach State	Crown Point, Ind.
Katie Kennedy	Jr.	OPP/MB	Long Beach State	Hood River, Ore.
Ava McInnes	So.	OH	UC San Diego	Tustin, Calif.
Zayna Meyer	R-Fr.	S	Long Beach State	Wheaton, Ill.
Josephine Ough	Sr.	MB	UC Davis	El Cerrito, Calif.
Macall Peed	Jr.	L	UC Santa Barbara	San Diego, Calif.
Joy Umeh	Jr.	OH	UC Irvine	Lakewood, Calif.
Honorable Mention: Emme Bullis (Cal Poly); Carisa Barron (CSUN); Dylan Dela Cruz (Long Beach State); Tasia Farmer (UC Santa Barbara); Tallulah Froley (UC Santa Barbara); Tayler Hifo (UC Riverside); Danielle Jefferies (Cal State Fullerton); Hayley McCluskey (CSU Bakersfield); Meredith Phillips (Cal Poly); Elizabeth Schuster (Cal State Fullerton); Olivia Utterback (UC Davis)
Big West All-Freshman Team