(Posted November 21, 2004)

Huntingdon, PA - Juniata College senior setter Carli Dale (Cochranton/Cochranton), and sophomore middle hitter Stephanie Kines (Towson/Towson, Md.) have been named first team American Volleyball Coaches Association All-Americans, while junior middle hitter Katie Laucks (West York/York) was a second-team choice. Dale captures the third All-America honor of her career, becoming just the fifth Juniata volleyball player to earn three or more All-America honors and the first since the 1999 season. The selection is the first All-America recognition for Kines, while Laucks earns the honor for the second time.

All three players have earned several postseason honors this season. Each of the three was picked for the AVCA Mid-Atlantic All-Region Team, while Dale and Laucks were both first-team All-Conference picks. Kines was named a second-team All-Conference player, while Dale earned her second-consecutive Commonwealth Player of the Year honor.

Dale continues to add adds to one of the most impressive resumes in the history of the Juniata College volleyball program. This is the second-consecutive season in which she's been chosen as a first-team All-American. She ranks in the top-five all-time in NCAA Division III history with 6,296 assists, which leaves her just 65 assists shy of the Juniata record for career assists. She is a four-time All-Region and All-Conference pick during her career and has averaged 13.28 assists per game for her career. She upped her season assist total to 1,613 after passing out 39 assists in Juniata's NCAA quarterfinal win over Emory (Ga.). That season assist total is the eighth highest single-season total in Juniata history, and is just 17 shy of giving Dale a new career high for assists in a season. She already has a career best with 416 digs this season, which leads the Juniata team. Her career total of 416 digs ranks fifth in Juniata history in that category. She helped Juniata hit .302 as a team during the regular season, which ranked third in NCAA Division III. She's even raised her play in the NCAA Tournament as her assist per game numbers have gone from 13.44 to 13.67 and Juniata's team hitting percentage has risen to .335 in NCAA play. She was picked as the AVCA/Sports Imports National Player of the Week once during the year, and was the conference player of the week three times.

Kines earns the first All-American honor of her career as she was a main offensive cog for Juniata throughout the season. She has raised the level of her play after being named the Mid-Atlantic Region and Commonwealth Conference Freshman of the Year last season. This year she leads Juniata in kills with 406, which is more than 130 kills better than her total a year ago. She also ranked second in NCAA Division III in the regular season in hitting percentage, and is now hitting .473 on the year. She has pounded out 10 or more kills 22 times, and has topped 20 kills on three occasions. She had a season-best 25 kills in the Commonwealth Conference championship match and also hit .742 in the match. It was one of 31 matches in which Kines hit .333 or better. That total includes a remarkable 30 matches in which she hit .400 or better. Like her teammate, she has been strong in the NCAA Tournament as Juniata earned a berth in the NCAA Division III semifinals. She has averaged 3.56 kills per game in the tournament with a hitting percentage of .562. She has also recorded 10 blocks, for an average of 1.11 blocks per game, up from her average of .88 during the regular season. She was selected as the AVCA/Sports Imports National Player of the Week following Juniata's Commonwealth Conference Championship win, and had three conference player of the week honors.

Laucks captures the second All-American honor of her career. She was a first-team All-American, as well as an All-Region and first-team All-Conference choice a season ago. She has remained a consistent all-around player for Juniata as she ranks second on the team in kills, first in aces, second in blocks and second in hitting percentage. She has finished 368 kills on the season, with a hitting percentage of .395. She finished the regular season in 11th-place in NCAA Division III in hitting percentage. She reached double figures in kills on 22 occasions with her season-high of 18 coming against Division I Princeton University. She had at least one block in 31 matches, and posted a career-best eight blocks against Princeton. Laucks tossed in a career-high seven aces in the season-opening win over Frostburg State, and she recorded at least two aces in 19 different matches. She passed the 1,000-kill mark in the season, and will head to the NCAA semifinals with 1,127 career kills, 252 career blocks and 149 career aces.

Juniata, currently ranked first in the AVCA/CSTV Division III Top-25 poll earned the program's 19th NCAA Division III semifinal berth with a 3-0 victory over Emory in the NCAA quarterfinals. Juniata will take on New York University in the semifinals in Rochester, Minn. Friday November 26. The Eagles are in search of its first national championship.

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