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DENVER - Chicago State junior outside hitter Lauryn Dela Cruz has been named Western Athletic Conference Volleyball Player of the Week for the week of Sept. 4-10. This is her second WAC Player of the Week honor of the season and of her career.
The Provo, Utah native posted double-doubles in all five matches last weekend, averaging 4.90 points, 4.65 kills and 3.65 digs per set as the Cougars went 4-1 on the week. Dela Cruz, who had 20 or more kills in three of the five matches, opened the week with 22 kills and 12 digs in a five-set road win at Bradley. Over the weekend, she led her team to the EIU Panther Classic title with wins over Western Illinois, Alabama A&M and host Eastern Illinois en route to earning all-tournament team accolades. She also tallied her first 20-20 match in a CSU uniform with 24 digs and 21 kills against the Panthers. It was a record breaking week for Chicago State, as it set school Division I records for the longest winning streak (six) and the best start to a Division I season (7-3) and won its first Division I tournament since 2004. Dela Cruz, who leads the WAC in both kills (4.40) and points (4.76), has a WAC-best 10 double-doubles on the year.
Other nominees included: CSU Bakersfield's Fabiana Andrade averaged 7.77 assists and 2.31 digs per set and was named to the all-tournament team at the NAU Tournament ... Hannah Hicks of Grand Canyon averaged 1.90 kills on .356 hitting and 0.80 blocks per set and earned GCU All-Tournament honors ... Kansas City's Alicia Harrington was named to the Kangaroo Klassic All-Tournament Team after averaging 3.42 kills and 2.83 digs per set last week ... Tatyana Battle of NM State averaged 4.25 kills on .395 hitting and 1.88 digs per set en route to Borderland Invitational All-Tournament honors ... Seattle U's Katarina Marinkovic averaged 5.08 kills and 2.38 digs per set and was named to the all-tournament team at the NKU Invitational ... Dubravka Vukoja of UT Rio Grande Valley was named to the all-tournament team at the Red Raider Classic after averaging 9.09 assists, 2.00 digs and 0.55 blocks per set ... Utah Valley's Lexi Thompson averaged 3.25 kills and 2.25 digs per set and was named to the all-tournament team at the TCU Fight in the Fort last week.