KXO Radio AM1230 and FM 107.5

Yuma, Arizona - Arizona Western College announced that AWC Volleyball player Patty Paniagua has signed an official letter of intent to attend the University of Alabama-Birmingham, and play volleyball for the Lady Blazers next fall. Paniagua is the first Lady Matador Volleyball sophomore to officially decide her educational future for next season. The announcement comes just one week after Paniagua was named as an NJCAA Division I 2^nd Team All-American.

 

Paniagua leaves AWC with very few 2-year college mountains left to climb. The sophomore middle blocker was about as decorated with individual awards this season as any Matador Volleyball player in the last five years. As a freshman, Paniagua arrived in Yuma from her hometown of Stockton, California, in August of 2006, and immediately began showing Matador fans her power on the court. Paniagua became the first Matador Volleyball player in 2 years to win the ACCAC Player of the Week Award in October of ’06, and followed that up by being the only ACCAC Division I volleyball player to be named to the 1^st Team on both the All-ACCAC and All-Region I squads. She was tops in the ACCAC in blocks and hitting percentage as a freshman.

 

As a sophomore, Paniagua immediately picked up where she left off as a freshman, winning the conference’s inaugural ACCAC Player of the Week Award this past September. She would win it twice more before the season was over, and then earned her first national award: the NJCAA Division I Volleyball Hitter of the Week Award for the week ending October 10^th. After finishing the season as the ACCAC’s most accurate striker (.364 hitting percentage), 2^nd-best blocker (1.59 blocks per match) and 4^th-best in kills (3.85 kills per game), Paniagua not only earned 1^st Team All-Region I and 1^st Team All-ACCAC honors, but was also honored with the conference’s top award, the ACCAC Player of the Year Award. Her eighth and final award as a Lady Matador was the pinnacle of her career as she was named NJCAA Division I 2^nd Team All-American. Paniagua helped lead the Matadors to their 8^th straight Region I title this season, and a 26-9 overall record-the team’s highest win total since 2004. “I am so excited for Patty and her future at University of Alabama-Birmingham,” said AWC Head Volleyball Coach Jason Smith. “She has done so much to improve herself in so many ways in her time at AWC.  She has a very bright future and we should all be proud of the way she represents us and our school.”