Rubena Sukaj and Ivana Cebakova Earn Awards from PL

Nov. 15, 2007

WASHINGTON - American University volleyball players Rubena Sukaj and Ivana Cebakova have been honored as the Patriot League Player of the Year and Co-Defensive Player of the year respectively, conference officials announced Thursday. Sukaj has now won back-to-back Player of the Year awards while Cebakova's award is the first of her career.

Sukaj, a First Team All-PL selection as well, earned Player of the Year for the second straight season. Sukaj led the conference with 5.42 kills per game, 0.70 aces per game and was ranked third and sixth in the nation respectively. The junior recorded 10 double-doubles throughout the year and scored 30 or more kills four times. Sukaj also set new single season career-highs with 569 kills, a .296 hitting percentage and 2.21 digs per game as well as notching new single match career-highs with 32 kills, 17 digs, six total blocks and 10 aces. The native of Albania was named the PL Baden Player of the Week five times this season, earned one award as the ECAC's Div. I Player of the Week and was also selected to the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District 2 First Team.

Cebakova's selection as the Co-Defensive Player of the Year is the first major award of her career. This season Cebakova split time between both the libero and outside hitter positions and proved to be a force both offensively and defensively. Cebakova notched three double-double's, recorded 20 or more digs in five matches, tallied over 100 kills and dug nearly 400 balls en route to the award. As a sophomore she averaged 3.78 digs per game, recorded a new personal best kills per game average of 1.12 and set a new single-match career high with 17 kills.

Major Award Winners