AMERICAN SOUTHWEST CONFERENCE VOLLEYBALL PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
Games: October 14 – October 20, 2024
 
OFFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK – Liz Underwood, OH, Jr., Hardin-Simmons
Hardin-Simmons junior outside hitter Liz Underwood (Clyde, Texas) led the Cowgirls offensively with 15 kills in each of two wins against Howard Payne and Schreiner. Underwood hit .481 against Howard Payne and .324 against Schreiner, with just five attacking errors in 64 total attacks on the week with 30 kills. She also had five services aces and recorded eight digs and 17 digs against HPU and Schreiner, respectively. Underwood is third in the American Southwest Conference in kills with 246 and kills per set with 3.19.
 
DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK – Mari Hernandez, L, So., UT Dallas
UT Dallas sophomore libero Mari Hernandez (Frisco, Texas) averaged 5.29 digs per set as the Comets went 1-1 at home. She came up with 19 digs with a service ace in Friday's sweep of LeTourneau. Hernandez then had 18 digs with four assists and two aces in Saturday's four-set loss to #10 East Texas Baptist. OTHER OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCES

Offensive
UT Dallas freshman outside hitter Alina Strickler (El Paso, Texas) hit .230 with 3.29 kills per set as the Comets went 1-1 at home. In Friday's sweep of LeTourneau, she recorded 10 kills and eight digs while hitting .265. Strickler followed with her seventh double-double of the year against #10 East Texas Baptist on Saturday, coming up with 13 kills and 11 digs.

East Texas Baptist junior outside hitter Graycee Mosley (Troy, Texas) helped ETBU to two more victories with a 3-0 sweep of UMHB to clinch a share of the ASC regular season title. She averaged 4.43 kills per set with 31 kills as she hit over .300 in both matches. She also produced two double-doubles and now has 11 on the year and reached the 1,000 career dig mark. She had 14 kills (.323) and 12 digs vs. UMHB in a 3-0 sweep and then collected 17 kills (.343) and 20 digs at UTD. She also had three service aces vs. UTD.
 
Mary Hardin-Baylor sophomore middle hitter Natalie Hughes (Corpus Christi, Texas) hit .317 last week with 17 kills over two matches. She had eight kills against ETBU with nine more against LeTourneau.

Defensive
East Texas Baptist sophomore middle hitter Emily Millikan (Round Rock, Texas) has stepped up in the middle for ETBU when asked this season. In the two wins over UMHB and UTD, she had eight blocks. Against UMHB, she posted three block assists in the 3-0 win. She then had five blocks vs. UTD with four block assists and one solo block. ETBU had 29 total blocks on in the two matches with Millikan almost recording a little less than a third of them.
 
LeTourneau graduate student libero Morgan Nix (Cypress, Texas) totaled 40 digs (5.71 per set) with three aces in two matches for LeTourneau. She had 20 digs and two aces in a loss to UT Dallas before tallying 20 digs with an ace in a four-set loss to Mary Hardin-Baylor.
 
Hardin-Simmons sophomore libero Kat Martinez (Abilene, Texas) led the Cowgirls on defense with 33 digs in two games last weekend. She recorded 16 digs in the ASC win over Howard Payne on Friday and had 17 digs in the win over Schreiner on Saturday. Martinez leads the Cowgirls with 3.40 digs per set with 255 digs on the season, ranking No.7 and No. 6 in the American Southwest Conference in each category.