Ole Miss Daily: Volleyball's Sasha Ratliff tabbed for Preseason All-SEC Team
Ahead of her senior season, Ole Miss middle blocker and two-time All-SEC team member Sasha Ratliff was one of fifteen student-athletes selected to the 2023 Volleyball Preseason All-SEC Team, the conference announced Wednesday.
It marks the second straight season that Ratliff has earned preseason praise from the SEC. She burst onto the scene as a sophomore and has collected conference honors each of the past two years.
This past season, Ratliff earned All-SEC and AVCA All-Region honors, showcasing why she is one of the top middle blockers in the nation. The Atlanta, Georgia, native capped off her 2023 campaign with 106 total blocks, moving her into fifth all-time at Ole Miss with 291.0 in her career.
Ratliff was also an offensive weapon for the Rebels, tallying the second most kills on the team. She finished her junior season with 277 kills, including 13 matches with double digits, while hitting at a blistering .343 clip that ranked fifth in the SEC.
Now a senior, Ratliff highlights a list of nine returning letterwinners from a season ago. Fans can get their first glimpse of the 2023 squad on August 19, when Ole Miss hosts Arkansas State in an exhibition match at 1 p.m. CT before hitting the road for the opening weekend of the season.
Related: Ole Miss one of seven founding members of The Collective Association (TCA)
Ole Miss tennis grabs ITA All-Academic Team recognition
Ole Miss men’s tennis has received ITA All-Academic Team honors for the 16th time in program history, while four Rebels were also named ITA Scholar-Athletes by the ITA this week.
Ole Miss has earned the team honor now 16 total times since first doing so in 1997, including nine of the last 10 years. The Rebels are among 162 other Division I men’s tennis programs to be honored. In order to qualify for the team award, a program must have at least a 3.2 grade point average across the previous academic year.
Individually, half of the Rebel roster earned ITA Scholar-Athlete distinction by earning at least a 3.5 GPA during the 2022-23 academic year. Among the 959 total Division I men’s tennis honorees this year were Lukas Engelhardt, Simon Junk, Nikola Slavic and Noah Schlagenhauf.
This is the fourth career award for Junk, the third each for rising seniors Engelhardt and Slavic, and the first for the freshman Schlagenhauf.
Ole Miss women’s tennis has earned ITA All-Academic Team honors for the 26th time in the last 27 years, while three Rebels were also recognized as ITA Scholar-Athletes by the ITA.
The Rebels are among 234 programs to receive the award in 2023. In order to qualify as an ITA All-Academic Team, a program must have at least a 3.2 grade point average across the previous academic year.
Earning ITA Scholar-Athlete distinction for Ole Miss were Anaelle Leclercq-Ficher, Lillian Gabrielsen and Reka Zadori. In order to be considered, individual student-athletes must have earned at least a 3.5 GPA over the course of the 2022-23 academic year. A total of 1,460 Division I women’s tennis student-athletes were recognized by the ITA this season.
This is the second career honors for both Gabrielsen and Zadori, who both were named in 2021, while it is the first career award for Leclercq-Ficher.
