South Alabama’s Anna Loberg has been named the Sun Belt Conference Preseason Setter of the Year, according to a vote by league coaches. Loberg and teammate Sarah Gooch were also selected for the preseason all-conference team.
Loberg was recognized as a first-team all-Sun Belt Conference player in 2024. During that season, she earned SBC Setter of the Week honors in consecutive weeks and ranked second in the conference for total assists with 1,022. This figure was eighth-highest in South Alabama’s single-season records. She averaged 10.12 assists per set.
South Alabama’s offense finished second in both assists and hitting percentage, and third in kills during league play last season. Loberg averaged 11.13 assists per set during a 10-match win streak, including five consecutive series sweeps against conference opponents. She also contributed offensively with 57 kills.
Loberg led her team with 24 service aces and recorded 241 digs, averaging 2.39 per set. She registered ten double-doubles—the second-most on the squad—and had at least 30 assists in twenty matches, reaching or surpassing forty assists ten times and fifty twice.
Sarah Gooch joined South Alabama after transferring from West Virginia and became a significant offensive contributor as a junior outside hitter. She earned Second-Team all-Sun Belt Conference recognition after finishing second on the team in kills (288), kills per set (2.85), points (329.5), and points per set (3.26). Coming off the bench, she added seventeen aces, one hundred digs, and thirty-eight total blocks.
Gooch increased her impact during Sun Belt play by averaging 3.23 kills per set—tenth best in the league—and posted four or more kills in twenty-five sets over the season, including eleven sets with five or more kills. Of these performances, twenty-three came against conference opponents; she reached double-digit kills twice in a single set versus James Madison and Coastal Carolina.
The Apopka, Florida native led South Alabama in kills for eleven matches and tallied nine or more kills seventeen times across her final twenty-one contests—fourteen of those coming within her last sixteen matches—with thirteen double-figure kill totals over that span.
South Alabama is scheduled to play its next exhibition match against Florida State in Tallahassee on Saturday at 1 p.m.
In other preseason honors announced by the Sun Belt Conference: Jalyn Stout of Coastal Carolina was named Player of the Year; Sunni Sheppard from Southern Miss received Libero of the Year; additional players from various schools were selected to join Loberg and Gooch on the Preseason All-Sun Belt Team.
In this year’s preseason coaches’ poll for Sun Belt volleyball, South Alabama is picked to finish third in the West Division behind Texas State and Arkansas State.
