Heise Earns Fourth Straight Defensive Player of the Week Award
Nov 23 | Volleyball
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (SMU) – Morgan Heise was named American Athletic Conference Defensive Player of the Week for the fourth straight week and seventh time this season, and Janelle Giordano was named to the volleyball weekly honor roll, after the Mustangs swept Connecticut to clinch sole possession of the American Athletic Conference Regular-Season title and a berth in the NCAA Tournament.
Heise broke her own single-season record, recording 49 digs in the two matches to take her season total to 658. She had 38 digs at Temple, matching her career high and tying herself for third in a match at SMU. The junior is the career-leader in the American Athletic Conference, and ranks second at SMU with 1,690 digs. Heise is averaging 6.09 digs per set this season, ranking second in the NCAA, and would become the first player in program history to average more than six digs for a season.
Giordano scored a career-high 20 kills at Temple, hitting .500 in the match with just two errors. The junior hit .333 on the weekend, and led the Mustangs with 33.5 points scored. The middle blocker had 13 blocks in the two matches, including eight against Temple, taking season total to 175.0 blocks this season, needing just 10 to break the SMU single-season record. Courtney Manning set the record with 184 blocks in 2011.
The Mustangs (26-4, 16-2 The American) play their last two games of the regular season in Moody Coliseum Wednesday and Friday. SMU takes on USF Wednesday at 2 p.m., and UCF Friday at 1 p.m. There will be a ceremony to honor the program's three seniors following the match against UCF.
