DENVER – Missouri-Kansas City senior middle hitter Melissa Hartsel has been named Western Athletic Conference Volleyball Player of the Week for the week of Nov. 10-16. This is her first WAC Player of the Week honor of the season and second of her career.
The Concordia, Kan., native averaged WAC-bests of 2.71 blocks and a .533 hitting percentage to go along with 2.71 kills and 4.07 points per set as the Kangaroos picked up a pair of conference victories to win the WAC regular-season outright and secure the top spot in this week’s WAC Tournament. Hartsel opened the week with six kills and zero errors on 12 attempts for a .500 hitting percentage to go along with seven blocks and two digs in a sweep of Texas-Pan American. In the four-set win over New Mexico State, she posted her first career double-double with 13 kills on .556 hitting to go along with a career- and WAC season-high 12 blocks. Hartsel moved into the top spot on the UMKC single season record book with a .348 hitting percentage and also broke the school record with 130 block assists on the season.
Other nominees included: Bakersfield’s Molly O’Hagan averaged 4.43 kills, 0.71 blocks and 0.57 service aces per set as the Roadrunners went 2-0 on the week ... Shannon Dugan of Grand Canyon averaged 4.56 points, 3.75 kills, 2.00 digs and 0.88 blocks per set ... New Mexico State’s Gwen Murphy averaged 1.57 kills on .320 hitting, 0.71 digs and 0.71 blocks per set as the Aggies went 1-1 on the week ... Matea Mamic of Seattle U averaged 3.63 kills, 1.50 digs and 0.50 blocks per set as the Redhawks went 1-1 last week ... Texas-Pan American’s Haley Durham averaged 3.67 kills, 0.67 digs and 0.33 blocks per set as the Broncs went 1-1 on the week ... McKenna Tait of Utah Valley averaged 6.50 digs and 0.80 assists per set last week.