Irvine Valley's scholar-athletes of the year for the 2017-18 school year were awarded to women's indoor and beach volleyball player Megan Ramseyer and men's volleyball player Austin McBain.
The two setters earned high marks for their work on the court and in the classroom.
The Scholar-Athlete of the Year is the longest standing award presented to IVC student-athletes.
Award winners epitomize achievement in competition and in the classroom, and demonstrate that excellence is possible in all arenas through their dedication and work ethic.
Ramseyer is continuing her athletic and academic career at Butler University and McBain is headed to study at UC Santa Barbara.
Ramseyer definitely made her mark in her one year with the Irvine Valley women's volleyball and women's sand volleyball programs – both on and off the court.
A transfer from the University of Idaho, Ramseyer helped lead the Lasers to an overall record of 27-0, and Orange Empire Conference title and a second CCCAA State Championship in indoor volleyball last fall.
She was named co-Most Valuable Player of the conference and was also selected as an All-American, All-State and All-Region.
Ramseyer ranked first in the state in assists at 11.33 per set. She had a season-best 53 assists in IVC's four-set win at Orange Coast to finish off the regular season.
She dished out 49 assists with 12 digs and two aces in Irvine Valley's 23-25, 25-16, 25-20, 25-16 state championship win over San Joaquin Delta at Solano College last December. She was named to the all-tournament team.
Ramseyer also averaged 2.09 digs per set and leads the team in services aces with 41 and has contributed 27 blocks on the year.
She was named as an all-conference player in beach volleyball this spring. She helped lead the Irvine Valley women's beach team to a conference title and a trip to the state tournament.
And then in individual state competition with pairs teammate Taira Ka'awaloa, Ramseyer and Ka'awaloa captured the 2018 state pairs championship at West Valley College over a two-day grueling tournament in early May.
Ramseyer and Ka'awaloa posted a 22-20, 21-18 victory during a wind-swept championship match, culminating a day that also featured wins over Long Beach City's Jessica Kaeka and Brooklin Mize (22-24, 21-13 18-16), Cabrillo's Hayley Hall and Deirdre Wilson (21-12, 21-19), and MiraCosta's Michelle Mason and Claudia Mathews (23-21, 21-18).
"I think the last two days we had a hard time starting out strong and the difference today was we started out every match a lot stronger, so it kind of gave us some momentum from the beginning," Ramseyer said. "We were able to finish and just carry it over into the next match. And we definitely took every match very seriously."
Ramseyer carried a 3.67 grade point average during the 2017-18 school year and was a scholar athlete. She earned her AA degree in Social and Behavioral Sciences at IVC and plans to major in Business Administration at Butler.
McBain was a two-year starter and two-time all-Orange Empire Conference player for the Lasers. He was named first team all-conference and setter of the year in 2018 after helping Irvine Valley reach the final four of the CCCAA State Championship tournament.
Irvine Valley ended up with a record of 16-6 overall and was ranked fourth in the state for the year.
McBain ended up ranked second in the state, averaging 10.11 assists per set. He also averaged 1.06 digs per set.
McBain ran the IVC offense, which hit an impressive .288 on the year.
He recorded at least 30 assists in 17 matches this past season, had at least 40 assists in nine contest and topped 50 assists in four matches with season-high of 57 in Irvine Valley's five-set win at Golden West on Apr. 6.
McBain was a two-year scholar athlete at Irvine Valley and finished with a 3.85 grade point average. He is headed to UCSB after getting his AA degree in Economics at IVC.
