Seniors Derek Wills and Aaron Velasco of Marian University men’s volleyball have been named All-NACC, as announced by the conference Wednesday.

Wills (Dubuque, Iowa) closes out a spectacular career with his fifth all-conference selection and third first team pick.  He paced the Sabre offense once again ranking seventh in the NACC for kills per set at 3.43 and eighth in the conference for points per set at 3.74.  Wills had double-digit kills in 17 matches during the regular season with at least 20 kills twice.  Showing his versatility, Wills also had double-digit digs in four matches with each performance leading to a double-double.  He was especially strong down the final stretch averaging 4.11 kills per set over the final five matches and a 19-kill performance against CUC to clinch Marian a spot in the NACC Tournament.  Wills finishes his career as the program leader for kills, second for kills per set, total points and service aces, third for digs, and sixth for total blocks.  

Velasco (Honolulu, Hawaii) earns his first all-conference award being named to the second team.  After making the transition to libero in late February Velasco proved himself as one of the top back row players in the conference.  Velasco finished the regular season sixth in the NACC with 2.56 digs per set and had 218 total digs.  He had 12 performances with double-digit digs, including the final five matches, with two of those matches having at least 20 digs.  His top performance came against North Park at the Cal-Lu-Fornia Invitational where he had a career-high 30 digs.  This earned him a NACC Defensive Player of the Week award and he eventually repeated after a 22-dig performance against Illinois Tech.  Velasco had two double-doubles on the year going for 13 kills and 13 digs against UWSP, and posting 23 kills with 14 digs against CUW.

The full release and all-conference lists from the NACC can be found at https://naccsports.org/sports/mvball.