By Chris Schmidbauer, Sports Information Director
Toledo, OH -- On Monday afternoon, the Ohio Community College Athletic Conference (OCCAC) announced its recipients for the 2019 All-OCCAC team members. Owens placed four players on the team and Owens head coach Sonny Lewis was named the OCCAC's Coach of the Year.
Freshman Tyriana Settles took home the most hardware, winning OCCAC Player of the Year and being named to the all-conference First Team. Settles had 220 kills and had a .359 kill percentage during 16 league matches, both of which ranked her in the top three in the OCCAC. She was also was strong in the back row, finishing with 4.10 digs per set, which seventh best during the conference season. Settles is the fifth player in as many years to win the award for the Express.
Fellow freshman Rebecca Brown and sophomore Kayla Bekier were both named to the All-OCCAC First Team as well. Brown set the single season record for assists this past weekend at the Mid-Atlantic District Tournament. She currently sits at 1,535 total assists for the season. Brown will have at least three more matches to improve on that mark. Bekier is second on the team in kills with 376 and she is third on the team in blocks with 78.
Freshman Semira Neely was an Honorable Mention All-OCCAC. Neely is the team leader in blocks (138) and service aces (76). She is also third on the team in kills with 273.
Sonny Lewis was named OCCAC Coach of the Year for the 10th time since 2002. Lewis won his 700th game as head coach back on October 26th against Schoolcraft. He won the award previously in 2002, '03, '06, '07, '08, '10, '11, '15 and '17.
Owens is currently preparing to defend their national championship The team will now have two weeks off to prepare for the National Championship. They will be the No. 1 overall seed in the NJCAA Division III National Championship tournament. The tournament will be played in Rochester, Minnesota at the UCR Regional Sports Center for the second year in a row. Owens defeated Eastfield 3-2 there a year ago to win the program's first national championship.