Two wins last weekend for the Valpo volleyball team led to two Beacons being honored by Monday as the Missouri Valley Conference announced its weekly award winners. Senior middle hitter Haley Hart (Frankfort, Ill./Lincoln-Way East) was named the MVC Player of the Week and fifth-year libero Rylee Cookerly (Brownsburg, Ind./Brownsburg) was tabbed the MVC Defensive Player of the Week.

Hart continued her standout start to Valley play to help Valpo to a pair of wins last weekend. She posted a match-high 15 kills on .500 hitting and added four blocks in a sweep of Indiana State on Friday, and then tied her career best with 16 kills on .355 hitting to go with four blocks in the four-set win over Evansville on Saturday. Four of the final five points of the match (three kills, one block) came courtesy of Hart after the Beacons trailed 23-20 in the fourth.

For the week, Hart averaged 4.43 kills/set on .421 hitting while adding 1.14 blocks/set as well. Through four MVC matches, Hart is hitting above .400 and is posting nearly four kills per set, while overall this year she is swinging at a .330 clip.

Cookerly set a new standard for Missouri Valley Conference volleyball players last weekend, moving past former Illinois State standout Courtney Pence atop the conference's career digs chart on Friday evening. She continued her ascent up the NCAA chart in the category as well and moved into 2nd place in D-I history on Saturday night, ending the weekend with 2,807 career digs.

Cookerly led all players with 16 digs on Friday and tied for match-high honors with 17 digs on Saturday, helping limit Indiana State - which entered the weekend the conference leader in hitting percentage - and Evansville - which entered the weekend atop the conference in kills/set - to just 12.57 kills/set on .151 hitting. She averaged 4.71 digs/set for the weekend.

Hart’s weekly honor was the first of her Valpo career. Meanwhile, Cookerly was named Defensive Player of the Week for a fifth time to go with one Freshman of the Week accolade from her rookie season.