By Michael Letendre

The American Volleyball Coaches Association recently released its 2021 AVCA Best and Brightest Award Second Team. 

And two players from the outstanding squad at Bristol Eastern earned the prestigious award.

Both Alex Shorette and Abby Jones earned a spot on the team, two of six Connecticut players to make the national list.

To earn the award, the student-athlete had to achieve a 3.3 Unweighted GPA or 3.8 Weighted GPA or above during her junior year of high school.

Nyssa Park from Conard in West Hartford, Nataly Moravec of the Hopkins School and Meghan Brennan and Margaret Ferguson from Pomperaug were all honored along with Shorette and Jones.

This season, the duo of Shorette and Jones haven’t missed a beat and continued to excel in both the gymnasium and in the classroom over on King Street.

Shorette has 73 kills to date for the Lancers along with 51 aces, 108 digs and 19 assists.

Jones, the tremendous setter for the Eastern program, has 546 assists in 2021 which is one of the best totals in the state.

She’s also tallied 105 digs and served up 42 aces as the Lancers are 13-5 overall and 8-0 in CCC South play.

In all, 977 student-athletes received the 2021 AVCA Best and Brightest Award.

NOTES…That group of standouts are all seniors now but the players were honored for their outstanding work in the classroom and on the court during their junior campaign.