McLean County Times

Taylor French, a sophomore from Romeoville, Illinois, has been named to the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) All-America Second Team. This marks her second consecutive season receiving All-American recognition after being named to the third team in 2022.

French is the 17th player in the history of Illinois Wesleyan University's women's volleyball program to earn All-American honors and the 16th under Head Coach Kim Nelson-Brown. She joins now-assistant coach Tyler Brown as one of only two Titans to receive multiple All-American honors. Brown was recognized with first-team honors in 2016, 2017, and 2018 after being mentioned on the All-American Honorable Mention squad as AVCA Freshman of the Year in 2015.

During her second season with Illinois Wesleyan's team, French was honored as the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin (CCIW) Offensive Player of the Year. She also earned First Team All-CCIW and AVCA First Team All-Region 8 accolades. Additionally, she set conference records by being named CCIW Hitter of the Week six times this season, including four consecutive weeks at year-end. Her eight career weekly honors match Tyler Brown's record for most in program history.

French also received national recognition twice as AVCA/GameChanger National Player of the Week on October 31 and November 7. This achievement marked a historic moment as she became the first player across all NCAA Divisions to win this award in two consecutive weeks.

Statistically, French ranked among the top five nationally during regular season play in several categories: kills (570), points (637.5), kills per set (4.79), and points per set (5.36). Her kill total ranks second-highest for a single season at IWU, while her average kills per set are also second-best historically within their program records.

Throughout all thirty matches played by "Green and White" this year; French recorded twenty-or-more kills fourteen times along with twenty-one double-double performances featuring notable single-game highs such as thirty-three-and-a-half points against Elmhurst on October seventeenth or twenty-nine-kill games versus Augustana on November seventh alongside others like aces or blocks tallies respectively from different opponents throughout various dates mentioned above accordingly too!

Underlining these achievements further lies an impressive contribution towards helping lead Titans into achieving seventeen wins out over total thirteen losses encountered during overall duration comprising entire seasonal campaign concluded recently where they managed reaching semifinals stage within corresponding CCIW Tournament competition itself eventually concluding thereby ultimately signifying another commendable effort put forth collectively indeed!