For the first time in their respective careers, junior Taylor Glover and sophomore Carrie Ciesla were selected as this week's Sooner Athletic Conference Attacker and Defender of the Week, respectively, for their performances in John Brown's 2-0 weekend, the conference office announced on Monday afternoon.
The Golden Eagles (9-3, 3-1 Sooner Athletic) finished off a four-match, two-weekend homestand with a 3-1 record to kick off conference play, including a thrilling five-set victory over Southwestern Assemblies of God (Texas) on Friday night before JBU took care of Texas Wesleyan in straight sets Saturday afternoon.
"After an outstanding weekend of play, I'm extremely happy that Taylor and Carrie earned player of the week honors," head coach Ken Carver said. "After a great week of preparation, Taylor came out fired up and ready to play and had her most consistent back-to-back performances of her career. She showed a lot of range as a hitter and high-level volleyball IQ with the shots she was taking. SAGU found her hard to defend because she was pounding balls down the line, between the blocks, tooling the blockers' hands and hitting some really sharp angles. All of those skills we've specifically been working on with her and our other hitters, so it was fun watching her put all of those skills on display for everyone to see.
"Carrie had an equally impressive performance. As a setter in a two-setter system, when a player can average over six assists per set, she's running a very efficient offense and our team's attack efficiency would attest to that. I love the maturity and growing confidence I see in Carrie each time she steps on the court. As our lone returning setter, she is showing continued growth in her knowledge of our offensive system as well as what particular sets her teammates hit well. As a result, our offensive production has continued to improve week-over-week. I also appreciate all of the help and support she's giving to our two freshmen setters, as well in assisting them in learning our offensive system and helping them deal with the pressures of running collegiate-level offense. With Carrie's leadership and example, we're quickly developing a very solid and capable trio of setters.
Glover grabbed her first-career Attacker of the Week honors after a strong weekend against two of the Sooner Athletic preseason favorites. Against SAGU, the outside hitter went off for a career-best 21 terminations, hitting .348 (21-5-46) on the match, helping the Golden Eagles to a five-set come-from-behind victory in Siloam Springs on Friday night. She added seven more kills in JBU's straight-sets sweep of Texas Wesleyan the following afternoon. On the week, Glover compiled 28 kills on 65 attempts to hit .308 (28-8-65), averaging 3.5 kills per set. The Grapevine, Texas, native added a pair of blocks in the two victories.
Ciesla passed her way to her first-career Setter of the Week selection with a 30-assist performance, a career high, in John Brown's five-set win over SAGU. The passer from Greenwood, Ark., added another 19 the following afternoon against Texas Wesleyan in the sweep to finish averaging 6.1 assists per set.
Sports on 09/18/2019