UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – A program-record-tying five Penn State men's volleyball student-athletes were named AVCA All-Americans as announced Monday by the national coaches' association.
Senior Brett Wildman earned his third career All-America honor with his first first-team honor, Penn State's first since Aaron Russell in 2015. Seniors Cole Bogner and Cal Fisher were selected second team All-America for a second-straight season and redshirt senior Will Bantle and sophomore Toby Ezeonu were named All-America honorable mentions.
Penn State's five All-America honorees ties its program record high for a single season, which was previously done in 1981, 2008, and 2009.
All five Nittany Lions were named All-EIVA first team selections with Wildman also being named the 2022 Uvaldo Acosta Memorial EIVA Player of the Year.
Wildman's third All-America nod comes in the same year as his second conference player of the year honor thanks to another electric season from the outside hitter. Wildman set personal single-season bests in kills (302), hitting percentage (.342) and aces (41) in 2022.
He has also climbed up the program career charts with 128 career service aces, good for fifth most, while nearing the 1,000 career kill mark at 981 currently.
Wildman's third AVCA All-America honor after his 2021 second team nod and 2020 honorable mention makes him the first Nittany Lion to collect three career All-America awards since Dennis Del Valle, who was a four-time All-American from 2008-11.
Wildman is one of eight Nittany Lions to be a three-time AVCA All-American: Javier Gaspar, Chris Chase (four times), Ivan Contreras, Jose Quiñones, Keith Kowal, Max Lipsitz, and Del Valle.
Bogner pieced together another stellar season as the Nittany Lions' setter, leading the offense to another great season. His career-best 10.48 assists per set rate ranks fifth nationally and led Penn State to 23 wins and .338 hitting percentage, the sixth-best rate in the country.
Bogner's second AVCA All-America award comes one year after being named a 2021 AA after his 2021 EIVA Player of the Year honor.
Fisher played lights out from the right pin and the service line this season for his second EIVA First-Team nod. He led Penn State with 47 aces this season and ranks only behind Olympians Aaron Russell and Max Holt on the program aces list with 142.
The Pittsburgh native also had 289 kills, a .326 hitting percentage and career-bests in digs (158) and blocks (38) in 2022.
The All-America honor is Fisher's second after his 2021 second-team award that included the nation's top server honor from Off the Block.
Bantle was as steady as can be as Penn State's defense rock for the last four years and finally claims his first All-America award. Bantle had a team-best .981 serve-receive percentage (464-473) and led the Nittany Lions in digs with 186.
His 2.02 digs per set ranked third in the EIVA. He became just the 10th Nittany Lion to reach 600 career digs this season.
The breakout season put together by Toby Ezeonu put him on the map as one of the country's top physical presences and earned him his first All-America honor. Ezeonu led the nation with a .528 hitting percentage (193-31-307), which ranks fourth in a Penn State single season all-time.
The New Jersey native ranked third on the team with 191 kills while leading the Nittany Lions with 77 total blocks, 13 of which were solo.
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