Pepperdine university men’s volleyball All-American and Australian national team player Paul Carroll earned a notable accomplishment earlier this week, as Volleyball Australia honored him with the 2008 Ted Kalkhoven Award as the nation’s top male player.
Carroll has been on the national teams since 2004 when he played in the Asian Junior Championships. He was part of the first Australian team to win the Asian Championships and the Commonwealth Volleyball Championships in 2007. Competing at the 2007 World Cup in Japan, Carroll was one of the top scorers at the tournament, finishing second among all players with 183 kills.
Carroll is heading into his senior year at Pepperdine, where he is already a two-time All-American first team selection. He ranks seventh all-time in kills at Pepperdine and helped the Waves to the national championship match this past season.
Carroll was unable to attend the awards ceremony because the Waves were competing at the preseason Can-Am Challenge at the University of Alberta. Four American universities (Pepperdine, USC, Stanford and IPFW) competed head-to-head against four Canadian universities in the annual event. The Waves defeated Montreal and Trinity Western but lost to Saskatchewan and Alberta. Overall, the U.S. schools won the event by a 10-6 score.
Carroll and sophomore outside hitter Cory Riecks made the all-tournament team.