Fifth-year senior Inky Ajanaku was named the Honda Sports Award winner for volleyball by the Collegiate Women Sports Awards on Thursday, the organization’s Executive Director Chris Voelz announced Thursday.
The Honda Sports Award has been presented annually by the CWSA for the past 41 years to the top women athletes in 12 NCAA-sanctioned sports and signifies “the best of the best in collegiate athletics”.
Ajanaku becomes a finalist for the Collegiate Woman Athlete of the Year and the prestigious 2017 Honda Cup which will be presented on a live telecast on CBS Sports Network in June.
Ajanaku was chosen by a vote of administrators from over 1,000 NCAA member schools. Finalists included Ebony Nwanebu (Texas), Kadie Rolfzen (Nebraska) and Sarah Wilhite (Minnesota).
“I am nothing but humbled to win this award because I know that many of the people that played against me and the people that played beside me this season are all deserving of the very same recognition,” said Ajanaku. “I am proud of how our team played at the end of the season, but I am more proud of the smaller moments of strength shown when we weren’t as successful. Being a part of a team with that type of resilience is the greatest honor. So, thank you to Stanford women’s volleyball and Honda and the CWSA.”
Ajanaku led the Cardinal to its record-tying seventh national title and was named Most Outstanding Player of the NCAA Final Four. She is a three-time AVCA First Team All-American and is a 2016 Senior CLASS Award First Team All-American.
Ajanaku was earned VolleyballMag.com’s National Player of the Year.
A four-time All-Pac-12 Conference honoree, she led the league in blocks (192) and blocks per set (1.54) to rank fifth and sixth in the nation, respectively. She capped her career with 627 total blocks, the most in school history in the rally-scoring era.
“Inky had a truly amazing season, which she continued to build on each step of the way,” Stanford coach John Dunning said. “By the end, in my opinion, she was playing the best volleyball of her career, and at the same time provided the leadership our team needed to win a championship. She is a special player and very deserving of this honor.”
This is the eighth time a Stanford student-athlete received the Honda Award for the sport of volleyball, and only Ogonna Nnamani (Stanford, 2005) went on to win the Honda Cup.
Men’s volleyball
Former Stanford men’s soccer standouts Jordan Morris and Chad Marshall were part of a group of 32 players called by head coach Bruce Arena for the U.S. Men’s National Team’s annual January camp.
This will be the first training camp coached by Arena since he took over in November of last year, and comes just two months before Final Round Qualifying for the 2018 FIFA World Cup resumes. Players will report Jan. 10 to the National Training Center in Carson, Calif.
Morris and Marshall, 2016 MLS Cup champions with the Seattle Sounders, are two of four Cardinal to have capped for the USMNT along with Todd Dunivant and Brandon Vincent.
Morris has scored once in 12 career caps. Then-head coach Jurgen Klinsmann called him last November ahead of the United States’ first two Hexagonal games in 2018 FIFA World Cup Qualifying, but Morris injured his hamstring during the second leg of the Sounders’ Western Conference Semifinals match against FC Dallas and was sent home early from camp.
He made five appearances with the senior team in 2016, with his most recent contributions coming as a substitute in Havana in a 2-0 win over Cuba in October.
Marshall has 11 career caps, but has not featured in a U.S. kit in nearly seven years. His last action came in January 2010 in a 3-1 friendly loss to Honduras.
Congratulations Inky!
You have been such a kind person to our daughters and offered friendship and enthusiasm for the sport. It is great to see the Stanford Volleyball program reach a national championship and see you recognized with this award.
We already knew that you were a winner long before this and are so happy to see you achieve these levels.