Oct. 1, 2007
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - Penn State women's volleyball freshman middle hitter Arielle Wilson (Broadview, Ill.) has been named the Co-Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week, conference officials announced today. It is the first career accolade for Wilson and brings Penn State's total Big Ten Player of the Week citations to 54 since joining the conference for the 1991 season. It is the fourth for the Nittany Lions this season as sophomore outside hitter Megan Hodge (Durham, N.C.) picked up the honor on Sept. 10 and junior middle hitter Christa Harmotto earned the award on Aug. 27 and Sept. 24.
Wilson shares the award with Minnesota sophomore libero Christine Tan. Big Ten Defensive Players of the Week are recognized for blocking, digging and receiving efforts as well as all-around play.
In her first road weekend of Big Ten play, Wilson aided the Nittany Lions in sweeping both opponents to improve to 4-0 in the conference. In two games at Indiana on Friday, the freshman recorded eight kills on an errorless nine attacks to hit a career-high .889, also adding in a career-best eight blocks. The following night at Purdue, Wilson earned her first career Big Ten start and contributed a career-high-tying 10 kills and again matched her career best in the blocking category with eight stuffs, including two solo efforts.
For the weekend, Wilson averaged 3.60 kills per game on a team-high .536 attack percentage with an astounding 3.20 blocks per game, racking up 16 blocks in five games, including three solo efforts.
No. 3 Penn State (12-2, 4-0 Big Ten) returns home this weekend, hosting Iowa (9-6, 1-3) and No. 12 Minnesota (11-3, 4-0). On Friday, Oct. 5, the Nittany Lions and Hawkeyes square off at 7:00 p.m. at Rec Hall before Penn State faces the Gophers on Saturday, Oct. 6 at 8:00 p.m., also at Rec Hall.
For more information on the Penn State women's volleyball team, please visit www.GoPSUsports.com.