Hegarty and Giordano Sweep The American Weekly Awards
Oct 31 | Volleyball
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (SMU/The American) – SMU swept the American Athletic Conference weekly volleyball awards for the second straight week, with Katie Hegarty being named Offensive Player of the Week for the first time in her career, and Janelle Giordano earning Defensive Player of the Week honors for the second time this season.
Hegarty recorded the conference's first triple-double, and the first at SMU during the rally-scoring era, with 22 kills, 12 digs and 10 blocks in a five-set win against Tulane, teaming with Giordano for a block on match point to give SMU a 16-14 win in the fifth set. She also had 10 kills in a 3-0 win against Houston, and averaged 5.31 points per set with a .295 attack percentage.
Giordano became SMU's all-time blocks leader, posting a season-high 11 against the Green Wave to take her career total to 584 blocks, passing Courtney Manning who had 579 blocks from 2009-12. The senior tallied eight blocks against Houston, and has 123 this season, leading the league with 1.38 per set. The senior also scored 26 kills with a .345 attack percentage in the two matches, including a season-high 19 kills against Tulane.
SMU players have earned five of six defensive awards since the start of conference play, and Mustangs have collected eight weekly awards this season, with six honor roll recipients. Hegarty is just the second Mustang to earn Offensive Player of the Week this season, with freshman Kendall Patterson earning SMU's first offensive award last week.
The Mustangs play at second-place Cincinnati Friday at 7 p.m. ET/6 p.m. CT, and wrap up the road trip at East Carolina Sunday at 1 p.m. ET/12 p.m. CT. SMU has a one-match lead on the Bearcats, winning in five sets at home after a tightly-contested, 3-1 win against the Pirates on the first weekend of American Athletic Conference matches.
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Players Mentioned
Middle Blocker
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Opposite Hitter
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Setter
/ VolleyballThursday, September 17
Thursday, September 17
Tuesday, September 15
Sunday, September 13
