Women’s Volleyball Moves Up in Ranking

Katie Fay, Deputy Managing Editor

October 15, 2024

Outside hitter, Jamison Wheeler has helped the Mustangs in its inaugural ACC season. Career highlights include being named to the first-team All-AAC in 2022 and 2023.

SMU’s women’s volleyball has moved up three spots from No. 15 to No.12 in the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Poll. This marks the highest ranking in program history according to an SMU athletics press release.

The poll ranks the top teams from all conferences and is voted on by coaches from all conferences and geographic regions of the U.S. The ranks are updated weekly.

No. 7 Naya Shime was named earned 1,000 career kills against Baylor Sept. 10 and was named ACC Defensive Player of the Week Oct. 7. (Chloe Casdorph)

The team’s new ranking follows their victory over the No.1 team, the Pittsburgh Panthers, last Saturday at Moody Coliseum. SMU’s winning streak has also translated into record-breaking attendance for three matches.

This win against Pitt earned SMU graduate student Nnedi Okammor a career high in blocks, finishing with 12 total blocks against Pittsburgh, and placing her in fourth place for blocks conference-wide.

The team has now defeated two of the top five ranked national volleyball teams. They will play No. 5 team, Stanford, Oct. 16, at Moody Coliseum. Last year, Stanford reached the NCAA Regional Final before being knocked out by Texas.

About the Contributor

Katie Fay, Deputy Managing Editor

As the Deputy Managing Editor, Katie helps manage the editorial and daily responsibilities for the online and print editions of The Daily Campus. She sees that digital and print products come out, on time, every day as scheduled, with content thoroughly covering the SMU community, fairly and thoroughly reported, well- written and well-presented and free of error. She helps plan, develop, track and post unique content for smudailycampus.com beyond the content published/aired by the partner media; monitors the central assignments calendar for unique content opportunities; works with students and/or faculty wishing to discuss potential assignments, editorial calendars, breaking news alerts, etc. She previously served as The DC’s arts & life editor. You can reach her at [email protected].