The Chattanooga volleyball duo of Morgan Romano and Elaine Redman was able to put an exclamation point on what was an illustrious season for each player after the Southern Conference named Romano the conference’s Offensive Player of the Month and Redman the Setter of the Month, as announced by the league office on Tuesday.
The pair was instrumental in the team’s dramatic 3-1 victory over No. 2 seed Mercer in the SoCon Tournament Quarterfinals. Additionally, each player was able to make progress towards major individual milestones as the 2023 season reached its conclusion.
This is just the second time is program history that two UTC players received Player of the Month nods from the conference in the same month, with Natalie Tyson and Paige Gallentine both having earned honors for the Mocs in November of 2022.
Romano added multiple cherries on top of her illustrious career in the month of November, helping to guide the Mocs past Mercer in the SoCon Tournament Quarterfinals with a 16-kill, 11-dig performance against the Bears. Additionally, Romano reached a major career milestone earlier in the month against the same Bears team in UTC’s penultimate match of the regular season.
With her mother cheering her on in the crowd, Romano logged an astonishing 18 kills against Mercer enroute to joining an elite group of players as she officially crossed the 2,000 career kill mark on the night. At the time of the accomplishment, Romano was one of only two active players in the entire NCAA to reach the landmark. Romano also spent most of the 2023 regular season as the NCAA active career kills leader across all levels of volleyball.
Romano’s 2023 season would end with her logging a team-high 453 total kills on the year while hitting the ball a single-season best .275. Her season kill total ranks the seventh-most kills in a single season by a Moc in program history. Romano’s career ends with her sitting at 2,035 career kills across her four years at Rider and one year at UTC.
For her efforts, Romano received a place on the All-SoCon Second Team alongside teammate Paige Gallentine. Romano has been an all-conference selection in each of her five seasons of collegiate volleyball, having been a four-time All-MAAC honoree during her time at Rider alongside of her all-conference recognition from this season.
Redman would end a milestone-ridden 2023 campaign with the Mocs on a high note for the month of November, as the junior the blazed through the team’s final six matches to record a grand total of 221 assists, 65 digs, 10 kills and seven blocks. Of those final six matches, Redman would finish with 40+ assists in half of them including notching 41 assists and 19 digs for the Mocs in their dramatic victory over Mercer in the SoCon Tournament Quarterfinals.
The Chattanooga native’s season would end with her averaging a double-double for UTC, averaging 35.9 assists/match and 10.3 digs/match. Redman’s 1,186 total assists on the year not only mark a single-season best for the junior, but they also rank as the fifth-most by any player in a single season in program history.
Redman also set a program record for the Mocs in terms of Player of the Week awards won in a single season, as she was named SoCon Setter of the Week a total of five times in 2023. This not only ranked as the most of any setter in the conference but tied Redman with the league’s Player of the Year Ali Ruffin for the most Player of the Week awards won on the season. Redman somehow did not receive SoCon All-Conference honors for her many accomplishments this year.
Romano and Redman are joined this month by Wofford’s Sarah Barham, who took home the SoCon Defensive Player of the Month award for the Terriers.