Dyamond Free, left, and Isabella Choice are heading were selected to a U23 team for a volleyball tournament in Croatia
Raptors' Choice, Free set for European volleyball tour
CAMDEN, N.J. (July 11, 2023) – Rutgers University-Camden volleyball stars
Isabella Choice and
Dyamond Free will play major roles in the fortunes of the Scarlet Raptors' program during their senior seasons this fall, but the three-year veterans will be adding international experience before then.
Choice (Tallahassee, FL/Maclay School) and Free (Stratford, NJ/Sterling) are two of the 12 players selected by Bring It Promotions, LLC on the roster of the U23 BIP SE All-Star Team for its European tour July 13-23. A 10-player U19 BIP SE All-Star Team also will be making the trip, which begins in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina for sightseeing, practicing and friendly matches before visiting Split, Croatia. From there, the team will participate in the 2023 European Global Challenge, a four-day tournament July 18-21 in Pula, Croatia. The final stop of the European trip will be a visit to Venice, Italy.
Choice, a middle hitter, has established herself as one of the top players in the New Jersey Athletic Conference. She earned NJAC Second Team honors last fall and was a member of the ECAC all-tournament team during her sophomore season in 2021.
As a junior, Choice paced the Scarlet Raptors in kills (279), kills per set (2.66), hitting percentage (.281) and blocks (74, including 24 solo). A three-time Rutgers-Camden Raptor of the Week (Nov. 15, 2021, and back-to-back on Oct. 17 and 24, 2022), she was second on the team with 42 service aces as a junior, while adding 70 digs and three assists.
Choice set Rutgers-Camden's three-set program record with 21 kills against Goucher College (Oct. 22, 2022), while hitting .581, the 12th-highest hitting percentage among all players with 12 or more kills in one match. On October 20, she had 23 kills in a 3-1 win over Gwynedd Mercy University, the fourth-highest four-set match total in program history.
Choice's .291 hitting percentage as a sophomore was the eighth-highest single-season mark in program history and her .281 percentage from 2022 ranks ninth. She also has the ninth-highest season total for blocks (78 in 2021) and her 74 blocks in 2022 rank 11th.
After three seasons with the volleyball program, Choice has appeared in 235 sets over 67 matches and ranks among the program's career leaders with a current .269 hitting percentage (third among all players with at least 50 kills), 161 blocks (fifth), a current 2.40 average in kills per set (fifth), 565 kills (10th), 1,308 total attacks (16th) and 74 service aces (21st).
A Biology major with an Art minor who plans to attend medical school, Choice was a NJAC Academic Honorable Mention student for the 2021-22 scholastic year.
Both Choice and Free are Dean's List students and members of the Rutgers-Camden Athletic Director's Honor Roll. Free, a dual major in Health Sciences and Psychology, also has a Biology minor.
Free has played in 234 sets over 67 career matches at Rutgers-Camden. She ranks among the program's all-time leaders in total attacks (11th with 1,535), kills/set (12th, 2.08), total kills (13th, 486) and blocks (20th, 54).
During her junior season in 2022, Free played in all 29 matches and 105 sets for the team, finishing second in kills (244) and third in kills per set (2.32). The outside hitter added 92 digs, 20 blocks (two solo, 18 assists), eight service aces and seven assists.
Free's 244 kills are the program's 13th-highest single-season total and her 793 attack attempts rank sixth among single-season program records. Her .600 hitting percentage (13 kills, one error in 20 attempts) against Penn State-Harrisburg (Sept. 17), the 10th-highest single-match hitting percentage in program history for anybody with the minimum of 12 kills.
Bring It Promotions press release
