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DENVER - NM State senior outside hitter Gwen Murphy has been named Western Athletic Conference Volleyball Player of the Week for the week of Aug. 24-30. This is the first-ever WAC Player of the Week honor for Murphy.
The Elfrida, Ariz. native led the Aggies to a 3-1 record at the Falcon Classic last weekend, with the only loss coming at the hands of No. 16 Arizona State in a thrilling five-set match. Murphy tallied 57 kills, nine blocks, seven digs and six service aces en route to all-tournament team honors. She posted a WAC-best .478 hitting percentage and averaged 3.80 kills, 0.60 blocks, 0.47 digs and 0.40 service aces per set. Murphy had the match high in kills in all four matches, with a career-high 16 kills in back-to-back matches, including versus the Sun Devils. She also had a career-high three service aces in the season opener against Northeastern and hit an astounding .722 versus Montana, the third-highest hitting percentage in a match of her career.
Other nominees included: CSU Bakersfield's Luiza Martins averaged 6.20 assists and 1.90 digs and was named to the all-tournament team at the San Francisco Invitational ... Elli Woinowsky of Chicago State averaged 2.11 kills and 1.33 digs and earned all-tournament team honors at the Women of Troy Baden Invitational ... Grand Canyon's Natalie Tardy was named to the all-tournament team at the Nebraska Invite after averaging 3.30 kills and 3.40 digs per set over the three matches ... Sydney Crimmins of Missouri-Kansas City was named to the Redhawks Invitational All-Tournament Team after averaging 3.73 kills, 2.73 digs and 0.73 blocks per set over three matches ... Seattle U's Jelena Vujcin was named Molten Classic MVP after leading the Redhawks to the title and averaging 3.33 kills, 1.22 digs, 1.00 blocks and 0.56 service aces over three matches ... Bojana Mitrovic of UT Rio Grande Valley earned all-tournament honors at the HBU Tournament after averaging 4.00 kills, 2.30 digs and 0.90 blocks per set ... Utah Valley's Lauren Bakker earned all-tournament team honors at the Pepperdine Asics Classic after averaging 2.10 kills and 1.60 blocks per set.