Maya Sands and Caylen Alexander Earn AVCA All-American Honors
12/17/2025 10:01:00 AM | Volleyball
Sands was assigned to the All-American Third Team, as Alexander was added to the Honorable Mention Team
Mizzou volleyball's senior libero Maya Sands (Rock Falls, Ill./Rock Falls HS) was selected to the American Volleyball Coaches Association's (AVCA) All-America third team, the organization announced on Wednesday, Dec. 17. Senior outside hitter Caylen Alexander (Alpharetta, Ga./Centennial HS) earned a spot on the Honorable Mention team.
Sands and Alexander's selection makes that 28 and 29 All-Americans in Mizzou program history since 2000. Sands is now the seventh player in program history to earn multiple honors, having been named to the Honorable Mention List in 2024.
Head coach Dawn Sullivan has now coached five All-Americans at MU (Sands/Alexander 2025; Vernon/Iliff/Sands, 2024).
Senior libero Maya Sands was selected as an All-American for the second time in her career, as she was an AVCA All-American Honorable Mention honoree last season.
During her senior year, she ranked first during the conference slate with 274 digs (4.72 digs/set). Sands also recorded the highest number of digs in conference play for a single game, as she set a new career high with 32 against South Carolina (10/24).
Sands started every set for the Tigers and paced the rest of the SEC by over 70 digs at the end of the regular season (494 digs, 4.75 digs/set) and ended her senior year with 511 digs and led the league with 4.69 digs per set.
The libero ended her career with 1,588 digs as a Tiger, ranking her third in program history. She finished with 4.64 digs per set in her three years, putting her first in program history.
In her career, she ended up with 2,000 career digs (4.41 digs/set), 436 assists (.96 assists/set) and 122 service aces (.27 SA/set). She was named an AVCA All-American H.M. in 2024, a three-time AVCA All-Region performer, a three-time SEC Libero of the Year and is a three-time All-SEC honoree (2025; All-SEC second team, 2023-24; All-SEC first team).
Outside hitter Caylen Alexander earned her second-straight AVCA All-American honor, as she was named to the Honorable Mention team.
In 2024, Alexander earned Honorable Mention status at Hawai'i, making her a two-time All-American with the AVCA.
The senior from Alpharetta, Ga., led the way for the Tigers with 422 kills (4.22 kills/set) and was fourth in points per set, 5.16, during conference play. Alexander also recorded 16 service aces in conference play, ranking her seventh in the SEC. She was also fourth on the team in digs with 193 for the season.
Alexander ended the regular season second on the team in double-doubles, tallying six. Against Florida (Oct. 10), the outside hitter recorded 24 kills, 15 digs, and one service ace with a hitting percentage of .333 for the match. The senior added one more double-double during the SEC tournament against Ole Miss (Nov. 22) as she recorded a season-high 32 kills and added 16 digs.
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