COURTNEY BIRKETT OF COLORADO COLLEGE, a junior right side hitter from Newburry Park, Calif., has been named SCAC Volleyball Offensive Player-of-the-Week for matches played from Friday, August 29th through Monday, September 1st.

Birkett was named the Most Valuable Player at the Colorado College Invitational to help her team win the tournament as the Tigers jumped out to a 4-0 record. Colorado College only allowed one opposing team to reach 20 points in 12 sets.

Birkett was the team leader in kills in three of her four matches while setting a new career high in block assists with four against Oswego State to go with 14 kills and seven digs. 

Birkett had a .333 hitting percentage and averaged 3.50 kills/set to go with 2.08 digs/set and 0.83 blocks/set. She also had a career-high four service aces against Blackburn.

 

Other outstanding performances in the SCAC:
Sophomore middle blocker Presleigh Watson of Austin College had an outstanding opening weekend, with a hitting percentage of over .500 in four of five matches and 25 total blocks to lead the 'Roos to a 5-0 start to the year, marking the first time since 2010 the 'Roos have opened the year with five straight wins. Junior setter/outside hitter Rachel Perkins of Centenary College paced the Maroon and White in kills (53) in all four matches including a career-high 18 kills in the first win of the season against Dallas Christian and finished second on the team in assists with seven and service aces with eight. Senior setter C.J. Broadbent of the University of Dallas picked up an impressive 49 assists against  the University of Texas-Dallas and totaled 122 assists over four matches in their Labor Day Tournament. Freshman right side hitter Kate Mitchell of Southwestern University picked up a conference leading 49 kills, including 16 in a win over Hardin-Simmons, to go with eight blocks to lead the Pirates to a 2-2 opening weekend. Sophomore outside hitter Kristin Fording of Texas Lutheran University tied for team lead with 3.07 kills per set including hitting .455 and racked up 10 kills in sweep vs. Concordia and following that up by notching 11 kills and hitting .417 in the first two sets against Wisconsin-Oshkosh. Senior middle blocker Erin Cusenbary of Trinity University led the team with double-digit kills in two of the four matches, and hit over .400 three times to lead the Tigers. She also led the way with four service aces in the weekend finale - a 3-0 win over Hardin-Simmons on Saturday. Schreiner University did not nominate anyone.