Monday, October 06, 2008

Valparaiso volleyball swept the Horizon League’s weekly awards when they were announced on Monday, as junior setter Kim Bukowski (Waukesha, Wis./West) was named the league’s Offensive Player of the Week and senior libero Brittany Malicoat (Elkhart, Ind./Memorial) was tabbed the Defensive Player of the Week.

Bukowski earned the first weekly league honor of her career after dishing out 156 assists in three matches last week in Valpo’s three victories.  The junior, whose setting has helped the Crusaders to top-ten national rankings in both kills/set and assists/set, dished out at least 40 assists in all three matches, including a career-high 66 helpers in Valpo’s win over Cleveland State.  Bukowski currently leads all Horizon League players with 10.24 assists/set.

A three-time Defensive Player of the Week and the league’s Defensive Player of the Year in 2007, Malicoat earns her first such honor of the 2008 campaign after averaging 6.45 digs/set in the Crusaders’ three wins last week.  The senior picked up 27 digs in Valpo’s sweep at Bradley, the third-most digs in a three-set match in Crusader history, and also registered 27 digs against Cleveland State.  Malicoat, who was named the U.S. Army Horizon League Scholar-Athlete of the Week last week, is now just 12 digs shy of reaching 2,000 for her career and is second in the nation with 66 consecutive matches registering at least ten digs.