Junior co-captain Nicole Buchholz became the first Ravens' volleyball player to earn All-Region honors with her selection to the All-Northeast second team on Thursday.

Buchholz named to Daktronics All-Region Second Team
The Raven middle hitter becomes the first All-Region selection in program history

RINDGE, N.H. (November 15, 2007) – Junior co-captain Nicole Buchholz (Ashburn, Va./Stone Bridge) of the Franklin Pierce University women’s volleyball team has been named to the 2007 Daktronics All-Northeast Region second team, as selected by the region’s sports information directors.

Buchholz, who has already been named to the Northeast-10 All-Conference second team and the NE-10 All-Academic first team this season, earns her first career All-Region selection. The honor is also the first All-Region award bestowed upon a Franklin Pierce women’s volleyball player in the 20-year history of the program.

In her junior season, Buchholz was the only Raven player to appear in every game of every match, including 33 starts in 34 matches this year. The Ashburn, Va., native led the Ravens both offensively and defensively this season, totaling team-highs with 334 kills (2.65/game) and 159 blocks (1.26/game). Both her total blocks and blocks-per-game average led the Northeast-10, while her 334 total kills ranked her eighth in the conference. Led by Buchholz, the Ravens finished second in the NE-10 in blocks (2.51/game) and fourth in kills (13.20/game).

In her first three seasons at Franklin Pierce, the co-captain has recorded 918 kills (2.82/game) and 381 blocks (1.17/game) in 88 career matches. Among Raven players since 1995, Buchholz ranks second in career blocks and third in career kills, and currently sits 29 blocks and 306 kills behind Mandy Johnson ’02, who holds the top spot in both categories. The junior also holds three of the top-eight single-season block totals and two of the top-seven single-season kill totals at the school, including her 159 blocks and 334 kills from this season that rank third and fifth, respectively, on the school’s single-season lists.

Franklin Pierce (18-16, 10-4 NE-10), which placed eighth in the final regular season NCAA Div. II Northeast Regional poll, finished the regular season in fourth place in the Northeast-10 following the best conference mark in school history. The Ravens also set a new school record for home wins with 11, and the team should return all 13 letterwinners from this season’s squad in 2008.