Valpo volleyball junior libero Rylee Cookerly (Brownsburg, Ind./Brownsburg) added yet another honor to her growing list of awards this season, as she earned Honorable Mention All-Midwest Region accolades from the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) on Tuesday.

The MVC Libero of the Year and a member of the MVC All-Tournament Team, Cookerly concluded a junior year in which she ranked 19^th nationally, averaging 5.25 digs/set. Her 667 total digs in 2019 ranked eighth nationally and are ninth-most in a single season in program history, as well as good for 14^th in a single season in MVC history. Cookerly reached double figures in digs in all 34 of Valpo’s matches, tallied 20 or more digs 15 times and surpassed 30 digs on three occasions.

A third consecutive strong season in the back row has Cookerly in some lofty company with her career numbers. Cookerly concluded her junior year with 2,092 career digs, 12th-most among active D-I players. She is the only junior among the top-25 in the category and owns 299 more digs than any other junior in the nation. Cookerly is just the fourth player in Valpo history to reach the 2,000-dig mark, and ended her junior season with more digs through three seasons than any player in program history. She is just the third player in MVC history with 600+ digs in each of her first three seasons, and in fact already sits among the top-10 in conference history in career digs as well.

Cookerly is the eighth player in Valpo volleyball history to earn postseason recognition from the AVCA, but the first since Emily Campbell received Honorable Mention All-Region recognition in 2014. She is also the third Valpo libero to receive AVCA awards, as Taylor Root was a three-time Honorable Mention All-American and Brittany Malicoat was an Honorable Mention All-American as a senior as well.