Valpo volleyball junior middle Mallory Januski (Bourbonnais, Ill./Bradley-Bourbonnais) was named the MVC Defensive Player of the Week following her record-setting blocking performance last Saturday at Murray State.

Januski nearly doubled her previous career best of seven blocks against the Racers, tallying 13 rejections — the most by a Valpo player in the 25-point era and the most by a Valpo player in any era in 19 years. Valpo Athletics Hall of Famer Liz Mikos is the only other player in program history to register 13 or more blocks in a match. The 13 blocks also are the highest total by any MVC player since October 2015.

Trailing two sets to none, Januski turned up the heat in sets three and four against the Racers to help extend the match to a fifth set. 10 of Januski’s 13 blocks came in sets three and four, including an incredible four rejections in a row with Valpo trailing 22-21 in the third set to close out the come-from-behind victory and send the match to set four.

Januski also had a match high in the block department the previous night, leading all players with five blocks in Valpo’s win at Belmont. Over the weekend’s pair of matches, the junior averaged an even 2.00 blocks/set to go along with a strong offensive weekend as well, as Januski hit .400 with 1.89 kills/set.