Spencerport native Jaden Gillette, of the Daemen College men’s volleyball team, has been named to the Erik Shoji Award Watch List for the 2020 season by Off the Block, a website that specializes in coverage of men’s collegiate volleyball. The Erik Shoji Award is given annually to the best libero competing with NCAA Division I/II. The award recipient is chosen by a national voting committee comprised of coaches and media members.
Gillette is a sophomore defensive specialist for the Wildcats. In his initial collegiate campaign last winter – and the program’s inaugural season – Gillette anchored Daemen’s defense. He appeared in all 23 of the team’s matches and tallied 134 digs, good for a 1.34 digs-per-set average. Gillette recorded 10 or more digs in three matches, including 18 in the program’s first-ever match – a 3-2 win over Alderson Broaddus University on January 11, 2019. The 18 digs in that match were the most for any player from an independent program in 2019, and Gillette’s defensive efforts helped Daemen rank third nationally with a .218 opponent attack percentage.
Gillette is joined on the Erik Shoji Award Watch List by Will Brantle of Penn State University, Addison Enriques of Concordia University-Irvine, Ruben Greenstein of Queens University (N.C.), Noam Hannoun of Quincy University, Ryan Lew of the University of California San Diego, Michal Podgorzak of Limestone College, Jason Shen of Harvard University, Cole Udall of Grand Canyon University, and Gage Worsley of the University of Hawaii.
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