Clemson Volleyball’s Cindy Stern and Jessi Betcher Win ACC Awards

Nov. 18, 1999

Greensboro, N.C.-Clemson, the top-seed in this weekend’s ACC Volleyball Tournament, captured the 1999 ACC Player-of-the-Year and Rookie-of-the-Year awards as selected by the league’s nine head coaches.

Senior middle hitter Cindy Stern (Cincinnati, Ohio) was selected as the ACC’s top player in 1999, while teammate Jessi Betcher (Boulder, Colo.) won the ACC Rookie-of-the-Year award.

Stern, a captain and four-year starter for the Tigers, has been a member of the All-ACC team each of her four years at Clemson. She leads the conference with a .369 hitting percentage and ranks second in kills per game (4.65).

Betcher is the fourth Clemson player to receive the ACC Rookie-of-the-Year honor and was selected as the ACC Rookie of the Week six times this season. Through November 7, Betcher led the nation with 14.18 assists per game.

The ACC also announced its first and second team All-ACC members and the conference’s All-Freshmen Team. Stern and teammate Alison Coday (Springfield, Mo.) are members of the first team, while Betcher and Jodi Steffes (Elwood, Ill.) represent the Tigers on the second team. Betcher is also a member of the All-Freshmen Team.

Coday, a senior outside hitter, is third in the ACC with 4.48 kills per game. She was a second team All-ACC performer in 1998.

Steffes, a sophomore, is tied for third in the ACC with 0.40 service aces per game and is sixth in the ACC with a .309 attack percentage. She was the ACC Rookie-of-the-Year in 1998.

Thirteenth-ranked Clemson (29-1, 15-1 ACC) will face Florida State (8-22, 1-15 ACC) in the first round of the ACC Tournament on Thursday beginning at 7:30 p.m. in Orlando, Fla.