DENVER – NM State junior libero Ariadnne Sierra has been named Western Athletic Conference Volleyball Player of the Week for the week of Oct. 17-23. This is her first-ever WAC Player of the Week honor.
The El Paso, Texas, native set two career highs and averaged 6.12 digs, 1.12 service aces and 1.12 assists per set as the Aggies picked up a pair of key road wins last week to remain the only unbeaten team in WAC play. Sierra opened the week with a career-high 31 digs in a five-set win over Utah Valley. She also added five assists and three service aces. In a sweep of Seattle U on Saturday, she finished with 18 digs, a career-high six service aces and four assists to give the Aggies their 23rd consecutive WAC victory and a three-match lead in the WAC standings. Sierra, who entered the week averaging 4.54 digs and 0.29 service aces per set, now ranks third in the WAC in both digs (4.68) and service aces (0.36) per set.
Other nominees included: CSU Bakersfield’s Marina Sanches finished with 11 kills on .562 hitting and five blocks in a sweep of Grand Canyon ... Heidi Carpenter of Grand Canyon posted a double-double of 19 assists and 10 digs in a loss to CSUB ... UMKC’s Madison Mosier finished with 11 kills on .458 hitting in a sweep of Chicago State ... Katarina Marinkovic of Seattle U averaged 4.62 kills, 2.25 digs, 0.62 blocks and 0.50 assists as the Redhawks went 1-1 on the week ... UT Rio Grande Valley’s Ragni Steen Knudsen averaged 3.50 kills and 1.50 digs per set on the week ... Madison Dennison of Utah Valley averaged 2.70 kills, 1.10 blocks and 0.80 digs per set as the Wolverines went 1-1 on the week.
