For the second year in a row, junior outside hitter Brad Lawson and junior libero Erik Shoji were named American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) First Team All-Americans. It is the third honor for Shoji and the second for Lawson. Shoji is just the second Stanford player in program history to receive three first-team honors from the AVCA.

Both natives of Honolulu, Hawaii, Lawson and Shoji helped lead the No. 4 Cardinal to a 19-9 record this season and a third place finish in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation. Despite losing in the first round of the MPSF tournament against Long Beach State last Saturday, the Cardinal still have an outside shot at earning the sole at-large bid for the four-team NCAA Tournament and a chance to repeat as national champions.

On the way, Shoji set the Stanfor career record for digs, and his season stats of 286 total digs and 2.62 digs per set both ranked second in the country. Lawson put together a similarly dominant junior campaign, moving up to No. 2 on Stanford’s all-time kills list in the rally scoring era while averaging 4.33 kills per set and a sporting a .331 hitting percentage. In last year’s NCAA final against Penn State, Lawson had one of the most impressive single games for an outside hitter in postseason history, tallying 24 kills on just 28 attacks and chipping in four aces to boot.

Stanford will learn its fate on Sunday when the selection committee convenes and will announce the at-large bid for the NCAA Tournament. The tournament will begin on May 5 in University Park, Penn.