Bergsma named AVCA Player of the Year

That’s her, waving. (photo credit: Mason Trinca/Emerald)

The Oregon Ducks will take the court in tomorrow night's national championship match led by Alaina Bergsma, a 6'3" fifth-year senior who must now think that the year she redshirted was the best move of her career (life, perhaps), as she has now been honored as the national Player of the Year. Bergsma was honored this afternoon at an awards banquet where she received the award directly from a now-noticeably showing Kerri Walsh Jennings.

If you've ever felt guilty for feeling drawn to volleyball because of the physical attractiveness of the players, a) you really shouldn't (whatever gets you here, gets you here) and b) you've got an out with Bergsma. Because she is legitimately a beauty queen, having won Miss Oregon in 2011 and participating in the 2012 Miss USA pageant. Seriously, if you google image search her name (as I did, to find the lead image), you'll find that the glamor and swimsuit shots outnumber the volleyball pics. At least at the top. Bergsma's got it, she's not shy about flaunting it, and I say you go, girl.

But of course, Bergsma is far more than just a pretty face. Bergsma led the Pac-12 and was top-ten nationally in most offensive categories this season. She already had Pac-12 Player of the Year and First Team All-American honors in the bag. Bergsma was a seemingly distant ninth in the Pac-12 in attack percentage, but remember that outsides usually don't have as high an attack percentage as middles or setters simply because they take considerably more swings. Of the top ten in attack percentage this year, Bergsma was the only one with more than 700 swings, and she took 1,223. You can easily make the case that she was the most efficient outside in the conference and probably nation this season. She was the conference's most prolific overall scorer by a substantial margin, and keep in mind we're not talking about the Horizon League or something here when we say best in the conference. She all but lapped the field in the Pac-freaking-12.

I'd have more to say about her if I had had much of an opportunity to see her play this season, but really, the numbers speak for themselves. Bergsma was a menace to opposing defenses this season, attaining better than a .300 attack percentage in 23 matches, and better than a .400 in 10 of them. And as I've said, she didn't just take a handful of swings to end up with such a high percentage. Last night against Penn State wasn't actually one of her better matches, going 16/7/51 for a meager .176, but the regional final against Nebraska was a sterling performance. Bergsma was 23/2/49 for an out-of-this-world .429 to lead the Ducks in scoring in what, at the time, was the biggest match in program history. Anything close to that tomorrow and Texas are in a heap of trouble.

It's the culmination of a great career for Bergsma, having earned Third Team All-American honors as a junior last season. But I'm sure she'd trade it in a heartbeat for that prize that's looming tomorrow night. One wonders if Karch Kiraly's getting any ideas watching her from the commentary box at this year's Final Four. He's gotta be tempted. Can't imagine she doesn't at least end up on a long list for the Rio national team.

Bergsma's, I think, will be a career I keep tabs on after her college eligibility ends tomorrow. As you may or may not have noticed, one area of volleyball I don't keep tabs on much at all is domestic pro volleyball in Europe and South America. I couldn't even guess what the name of Logan Tom's or Foluke Adinradewo's or Clayton Stanley's professional teams are, or even what country they're in. Television/webcast coverage is just too scarce and unreliable for me to try to offer any sort of content about those leagues. But Bergsma? I'm gonna keep one eye on her, I think. We may actually see in her in red, white, and blue as soon as next year at the World Grand Prix.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Bergsma and her Ducks still have one more match together, and it's the one for all the marbles. I don't think Oregon needed anything more to put a spring in their steps (at least I hope they didn't), but if anything, this will just the same.