The belief was that the national freshman of the year was playing in Fort Collins, Colo., at last week's NCAA women's volleyball regional.

It held true yesterday when Florida's Kelly Murphy earned the honor. The 6-foot-2 setter/hitter was one of two freshmen on the AVCA All-America teams announced yesterday—the other was Hawaii hitter Kanani Danielson.

Danielson (Kamehameha) was the freshman of the year in the Western Athletic Conference and Pacific region. She joined Murphy on the All-America third team, the only two first-year players selected among the 42 acknowledged on the first, second and third teams.

Earning second-team honors was Rainbow Wahine senior Jamie Houston, the two-time WAC player of the year and three-time WAC tournament player of the year. Houston was a third-team pick as a sophomore in 2006.

Danielson and Houston give Hawaii 24 (first- , second- and third-team) All-America athletes and 46 All-America certificates. Nebraska leads with 65 certificates and 31 athletes, with Stanford second in certificates (59) and third behind Hawaii and UCLA in athletes with 23.

Rainbow Wahine junior hitter Aneli Cubi-Otineru and sophomore setter Dani Mafua were named honorable mention.

Players with island ties recognized yesterday were Washington libero Tamari Miyashiro (Kalani '05), named to the second team, and St. John's senior libero Lena Yee (Moanalua '05) an honorable-mention choice.

Houston, a 6-foot-1 outside hitter, became only the second Wahine to surpass 2,000 career kills (2,061). She led the team in kills (4.05 kps) this season, adding 0.75 blocks and 1.78 digs per set.

Danielson a 5-10 hitter, ranked in the top 10 in the WAC in hitting percentage, kills per set and points per set.