Valpo junior libero Rylee Cookerly (Brownsburg, Ind./Brownsburg) has been tabbed the Missouri Valley Conference Defensive Player of the Week after strong performances in the back row over three matches for the Brown and Gold last week.

Cookerly opened the week with a match-high 36 digs in a five-set match against Drake - the second-best effort of her career and tied for third in a five-set match in the 25-point era in the Valpo record book. The junior followed with a team-best 16 digs in the sweep of Indiana State, and closed the week with a match-high 17 digs in the three-set win over Evansville.

On the week, Cookerly averaged 6.27 digs/set over the three matches and didn’t commit a serve reception error while helping to limit Valpo’s opponents to .128 hitting. In addition, in the win over Evansville on Saturday, Cookerly moved into fifth place in program history in career digs and enters this week with 1,898 career digs.