The Pac-12 Conference announced the year-end beach volleyball awards on Friday afternoon, with Andrew Fuller taking home Coach of the Year honors. Freshman Xolani Hodel earned All-Pac-12 first team, Charlie Ekstrom and Sunny Villapando earned All-Pac-12 second team and Hodel and Kate Reilly earned a spot on the All-Freshman team.
Andrew Fuller • Coach of the Year
The 2021 AVCA Collegiate Beach National Coach of the Year, Andrew Fuller completed his fifth season as head coach in 2021.
He guided Stanford to the program's first NCAA Championship appearance this season, setting a new program record with 23 wins. The Cardinal finished 23-13 overall and earned the No. 6 seed in Gulf Shores at the NCAA Championships. From March 6 to April 3, Stanford won 13 straight matches to set a new school record.
Stanford had 11 wins over ranked opponents during the 2021 season, including a program-record five, Top-10 victories. No. 1 pair Xolani Hodel and Sunny Villapando earned AVCA First Team All-America in 2021, the program's first-ever First Team All-Americans.
Xolani Hodel • All-Pac-12 first team, All-Freshman Team
An AVCA first team All-American, Hodel went 22-11 on the season, tied for the third-most wins in a season in school history. She teamed up with Sunny Villapando to go 10-3 as a pair, including 7-2 at the No. 1 spot. She played the first half of the season with fellow All-Freshman Team member, Kate Reilly, earning 12 wins at the No. 2 spot. Hodel is just the second individual in program history to earn All-Pac-12 first team.
Charlie Ekstrom • All-Pac-12 second team
For the second consecutive completed season (also 2019), Ekstrom earned second team honors after earning 18 individual wins on the year. She played with Villapando for much of the season at the No. 1 spot, as the duo went 12-8, before teaming up with Maya Harvey and Kate Reilly down the stretch.
Sunny Villapando • All-Pac-12 second team
An AVCA first team All-American, Villapando finished her career with 67 victories, the most in school history. She totaled a 22-11 record in 2021, going 19-10 at the No. 1 spot. Her 22 wins were tied for the third-most in school history, falling one shy of her school record 23 set in 2018.
Kate Reilly • All-Freshman Team
Reilly joins Hodel on the All-Freshman Team, just the fourth and fifth players in school history to earn a spot on that team, joining Kathryn Plummer (2017), Villapando (2018) and Ekstrom (2019). Reilly won 19 matches on the season, going 12-8 with Hodel at the No. 2 spot before finishing the season with Maddi Kriz and Charlie Ekstrom, whom she paired up with at NCAA Championships at the No. 2 flight.