Mount Olive, N.C. - Robert Poole from the University of Mount Olive men's volleyball team was named to the Academic All-American At-Large 1st-Team as announced by the College Sports Information Directors of America Association (CoSIDA) organization on Wednesday afternoon.
The senior from Enfield, England, makes his second appearance on the Academic All-American team as he was named to the 2nd-Team at the end of the 2016-17 school year.
Poole's senior season was capped with honors as he was named the 2018 Conference Carolinas Murphy Osborne Winner, earned a spot on the men's volleyball First-Team All-Conference Carolinas as well as the Conference Carolinas All-Academic team. He was also named the 2018 Conference Carolinas Men's Volleyball Spring Scholar-Athlete in addition to earning a spot on the CoSIDA First-Team All-District 3.
He led the team in kills (321), kills per set (3.28), service aces (73), service aces per set (.74), points (417.5), and points per game (4.30) throughout the season. Poole led the nation and conference in service aces and was fourth in the conference in kills and kills per set.
Poole leaves UMO as the career leader in service aces (180) and second in program kills with 1,000 in his career. The Trojans finished the regular season third in the conference standings, 16-13 (11-5), earning them an appearance in the Conference Carolinas Men's Volleyball Championship tournament.
Poole finished his college career with a 3.95 GPA as a chemistry major and dual minor in biology and physics.
The Academic All-America® program is being financially supported by the NCAA Division II national governance structure to assist CoSIDA with handling the awards fulfillment aspects for the 2017-18 Division II Academic All-America® teams program.
The at-large program for the CoSIDA Academic All-America® program includes the sports of fencing, golf, gymnastics, ice hockey, lacrosse, rifle, skiing, swimming and diving, tennis, water polo for both men and women; bowling, crew and field hockey for women; and volleyball and wrestling for men.
| FIRST TEAM | |||||
| Sport | Name | School | Yr. | GPA | Major |
| Lacrosse | Cody Bartusiak | Lynn University | Jr. | 4 | Investment Management |
| Swimming | Andrea Bazzoli | Drury University | Sr. | 4 | Psychology & Sociology |
| Golf | John Coultas (1,@) | Florida Southern College | Sr. | 3.87 | Business Administration |
| Tennis | Thomas Grinberg | Saint Leo University | Jr. | 3.7 | Economics |
| Tennis | Nils Hoffacker | University of Indianapolis | Jr. | 3.98 | Business Administration & Management |
| Wrestling | Nolan Kistler (1) | California Baptist University | Sr. | 3.99 | Criminal Justice |
| Golf | Anthony Marcinelli | Carson-Newman University | Sr. | 4 | Accounting |
| Swimming | Stuart Mossop (3) | Missouri University of Science & Tech. | Sr. | 4 | Chemical Engineering |
| Volleyball | Robert Poole (2) | University of Mount Olive | Sr. | 3.95 | Chemistry |
| Tennis | Torben Semrau | Southwest Baptist University | Sr. | 3.97 | Business Management |
| Swimming | Thomas Steenberg | Florida Tech | Sr. | 3.97 | Business Administration & Entrepreneurship |
| Swimming | Bernardo Valentim | California Baptist University | Sr. | 3.94 | Business Administration |
| Wrestling | Brett Velasquez (2) | St. Cloud State University | Jr. | 3.89 | Biomedical Sciences |
| Swimming | Giacomo Viazzo | Wingate University | So. | 4 | Chemistry |
| Swimming | Justin Winnett | Lindenwood University | Sr. | 4 | Biological Sciences |
| Google Cloud Academic All-America® of the Year: Nolan Kistler, California Baptist University | |||||
| (1) – CoSIDA Academic All-America® College Division first team selection in 2017 | |||||
| (2) – CoSIDA Academic All-America® College Division second team selection in 2017 | |||||
| (3) – CoSIDA Academic All-America® College Division third team selection in 2017 | |||||
| (@) – CoSIDA Academic All-America® College Division third team selection in 2016 | |||||