McLean County Times

For the third consecutive year, Taylor French, a junior from Illinois Wesleyan University, has been recognized by the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) as an All-American. The announcement was made on November 27. French received an Honorable Mention this year after being named to the Second Team in 2023 and the Third Team in 2022.

French is now one of only two players in Illinois Wesleyan's history to achieve at least three All-American honors. She joins Tyler Brown, who is currently an assistant coach with the team. Brown had previously been honored as AVCA Freshman of the Year and later earned First Team honors from 2016 to 2018. This marks four consecutive years that a player from Illinois Wesleyan has been recognized as an All-American; Courtney McAuliffe received an Honorable Mention in 2021.

The Titans concluded their season with a record of 24-10, capturing both regular season and tournament championships in the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin (CCIW). French played a pivotal role in helping her team reach the NCAA Tournament Regional Championship, marking only their second Sweet 16 appearance since 2018.

French led her team's offense with 506 kills, averaging 4.05 per set—ranking seventh and twenty-seventh nationally across Division III respectively. She accumulated a total of 613.5 points during the season, placing fourth nationally, while her average of 4.91 points per set ranked fourteenth. Additionally, she broke Illinois Wesleyan's single-season ace record set by LeAnn Genzel in 1996 by finishing with eighty-nine aces—the second-most across all NCAA divisions—averaging .71 per set.

Defensively, French contributed significantly by ranking second on her team with three hundred eighty-one digs and achieving thirty-six blocks throughout the season. Playing every match for Illinois Wesleyan this year across all one hundred twenty-five sets played, she recorded double-doubles in twenty-one out of thirty-three matches.

Her accolades include earning her third straight AVCA First Team All-Region Eight honor along with her third First Team All-CCIW accolade while being named CCIW Offensive Player of Year for two consecutive seasons—a testament to her outstanding performance throughout this period—as well as making it onto four all-tournament teams including Crafted Classic Cornell Classic IWU Classic NCAA Regional All-Tournament recognition breaking program records such as most conference weekly awards previously held by Brown when she secured ninth CCIW Hitter Week honor career Oct seventh

Looking ahead towards building upon their Sweet Sixteen success into next year's campaign under hosting rights Division III National Championship returning seventeen members from current roster