Jessica Walden Named to the AVCA All-Region Team for the first time in her career. Last season she was named to the All-Region Honorable Mention Team.	Jacki Barten Named to the AVCA All-Region Team for the second straight year.	Becca Shane  Named to the AVCA All-Region Team for the first time in her career. Last season she was named Region's Freshman of the Year.

Three Cobbers Earn AVCA All-Region Honors
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.-- Three Concordia volleyball players earned All-Region honors it was announced by the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) on Wednesday. It is the first time in program history that three players have earned the Central Region's highest honor. All three are now eligible to be awarded All-American honors.

Jacki Barten (Sr., Melrose, Minn.), Becca Shane (So., Detroit Lakes, Minn.) and Jessica Walden (Sr., Hawley, Minn.) all earned the All-Region award. It was the second consecutive year that Barten has won the award, and first for both Shane and Walden. Last year Barten was the first player in program history to be named to the All-American Team. In 2003, Shane was voted the Region's Freshman of the Year and Walden was named to the Region Al--Conference Honorable Mention Team.

The trio helped Concordia to a 24-4 record in 2004. That mark sets a school record for fewest losses highest winning percentage (.857) in a single season. The Cobbers won the MIAC tournament championship for the second consecutive season and advance to the NCAA tournament. Concordia also fell in the NCAA Midwest Regional semifinal for the second consecutive year. 

Barten finished her career by being placed on the all-conference team four years and on the all-region team twice. She was the driving force behind the Cobber defense at the net. She set school records in total blocks (500), assisted blocks (364) and has a chance to break the record for solo blocks. She has over 1,300 kills in her career and has played in 116 matches over the course of her four years.

She was among the league leaders in attack percentage and kills in 2004. She finished the regular season with 279 kills, an attack percentage of .277, 119 blocks and 59 digs. 

The all-region award continues Walden's string of impressive postseason honors. Earlier in the month she was named the MIAC Most Valuable Player, and last week she was named to the prestigious CoSIDA Academic All-District First Team. 

She is the current school record holder in assists in a career (4,354), assists in a season (1,278) and single match assists (68). She has also been voted the MIAC Setter of the Week eight times during her career, which is an MIAC record for that honor. 

In 2004 she finished third in the league in assists per game (11.81). She finished the regular season with 1,103 assists and had a season-high 68 assists against Loras College on October 8. 

Shane had a terric sophomore season. She was named to the MIAC All-Conference Team for the first time in her career and was named the MIAC Hitter of the Week on October 25. She finished second in the MIAC in attack percentage (.332) and fourth in kills (3.86/game). She led the Cobbers in attack percentage and kills, and had team-high kill totals in 15 of the team's 24 matches. She had a season-high 26 kills, on two different occasions. 
 

2004 AVCA All-Region Team 
 

Central Region
Jacki Barten **     Concordia College  MB   Sr.
Beth Freeman        Carleton College   MB   Sr.
Katie Freeman       Carleton College   OH   Sr.
Megan Houck         Washington Univ.   MB   Jr.
May Lin Kessenich   Macalester College DS/L Sr.
Kara Liefer **      Washington Univ.    S   Jr.
Clarie Loesch       St. Benedict       MB   Sr.
Katie Pederson      Central College    MB   Jr.
Rebecca Shane       Concordia College  MB   So.
Jamie Stark         Central College    MB   Sr.
Jessica Walden      Concordia College   S   Sr.
Colleen Winter **** Washington Univ.   OH   Sr.

Region Freshman of the Year: Ashley Rogers, Wartburg College, MB

Honorable Mention: Amie Aschenbeck (St. Thomas, Minn., MB,
Sr.), Rachel Batalden (Gustavus Adolphus, S, Sr.), Ashley Dingels
(St. Mary’s, Minn., MB, Sr.), Teri Knapper (St. Benedict, MB, So.),
Ashley Rogers (Wartburg, MB, Fr.), Tessa Stranik (St. Mary’s,
Minn., S, Sr.)