Conway, SC – Former Oceanside Collegiate Academy’s Anna Smith is the first player in the program’s history to win NCAA Division I Conference titles with the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers. The Chants completed the treble winning the Sun Belt Conference’s East Division, Conference and Tournament Championships this season. They have now qualified for the NCAA Division I tournament and will find out their opponent next Monday during the NCAA Selection Show.
Smith’s first collegiate season with the Chanticleers consisted of matches versus Georgia, Maryland, Princeton, Virginia, Duke and UNC out of conference with marquee wins over TCU, Virginia and Princeton and Sun Belt schools for the second half of the season where they swept the East Division 12-0, were overall conference champions at 14-2 then won the conference tournament with their 3-1 win over James Madison University to qualify for the NCAA Division I Tournament.
Smith, who at Oceanside Collegiate Academy was also Student Council President and an Ambassador for the school, received multiple national accolades in her youth career including USA Volleyball Association (USAV) Youth National Team pool selection (GYA3); American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) All-American and Phenom Watchlists; three-time AAU Academic All-American; Prepvolleyball.com All-American Special Mention, Academic All-American, High School & Club Watchlists for the Class of 2023; and Junior Volleyball Association (JVA) Watchlist for the Class of 2023.
In South Carolina her school won the MAXPREPS Cup & South Carolina High School League (SCHSL) Carlisle Cup in 2022 and 2023; the program won three region titles, four lower state titles and played in four state title matches winning in 2021 & 2022. Individually she was a SCHSL Scholar for 2023, a two-time region player and two-time Post & Courier All-Lowcountry Honorable Mention, was a four-year varsity letterman and the first player in the program’s history to sign with an NCAA Division I school.
She played Club for Carolina Rogue Volleyball Club (Columbia, SC) for three seasons which finished 63rd in the country in 2021 and Rio Volleyball Club (Atlanta, GA) in 2022 which won a bid to the USAV 18’s Girls Junior Nationals in Columbus, Ohio.
She plans to study marketing and photography to support her already launched sport photography career.
