For the second time this season, the Valpo volleyball team boasts the Missouri Valley Conference Defensive Player of the Week, as the MVC announced Monday afternoon that senior Bella Ravotto (Mishawaka, Ind./Marian) claimed this week’s defensive honor.

Ravotto was strong all weekend defensively as Valpo won the Akron Invitational, highlighted by a 30-dig performance in the tournament finale against Cleveland State — her second career match with 30+ digs and the most by any MVC player in a four-set match this season. Her 27^th dig of the match was the 1,000^th of her Valpo career, making her the 23^rd player in program history to reach the milestone.

Prior to her effort against CSU, Ravotto picked up six digs and two blocks while playing parts of two sets of Valpo's sweep of Morgan State. She tallied 12 digs and set her career high with four blocks in the Beacons' win over host Akron. For the weekend, Ravotto averaged 4.80 digs/set and 0.60 blocks/set as her play helped Valpo limit its opposition to .078 hitting over the three matches.

This marks Ravotto’s second career weekly award from the MVC office, as she was previously Defensive Player of the Week on March 2, 2021. In its sixth season as an MVC school, the volleyball team has earned 13 Defensive Player of the Week honors.