Abbey Breit Becomes 1st JSU Student-Athlete
to be Named OVC Female Athlete of the Year

Abbey Breit

The Ohio Valley Conference announced today that Jacksonville State University junior volleyball player/outside hitter Abbey Breit becomes the first Jacksonville State student-athlete to be named OVC Female Athlete of the Year and just the fifth volleyball player to earn the award. She will receive her award from Dr. Jon A. Steinbrecher, OVC Commissioner, at the League’s annual Honors Luncheon on June 1 in Nashville.

The Louisville, Kentucky native earned her second straight OVC Offensive Player of the Year Award in 2006 after leading the Gamecocks to a 24-5 overall record and a perfect 16-0 mark. She was selected to the All-OVC first-team for the third time and was selected as an honorable mention All-American by the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA). Breit was one of 14 players in the country to be selected to the CVU Stellar Spikers First-Team, which honored the top impact players in the country that exhibited both excellence and balance on the court.

Eastern Kentucky University senior cross country All-American Jacob Korir has been named the 2006-07 OVC Male Athlete of the Year. The OVC first awarded a Male Athlete of the Year award in 1977 and gave out the first Female Athlete of the Year in 1981.

Korir becomes the seventh Eastern Kentucky athlete to win the Male Athlete of the Year award and the first since Markus Thomas (football) received the accolade in 1993. The Nairobi, Kenya native earned All-American status for the second straight year after finishing seventh at the 2006 NCAA Cross Country Championships. He won the 2006 NCAA Cross Country Southeast Regional, completing the 10K run in 30:03.10, which was 20 seconds better than Josh McDougal of Liberty who had not been defeated in two years. Korir was named the OVC Male Cross Country Athlete of the Year for the third time after capturing his third consecutive league individual title in 2006. He was a member of the 2006 cross country squad that earned the OVC Sportsmanship Award.

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