Oct. 12, 2009
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - Senior setter Alisha Glass (Leland, Mich.) was named the Big Ten Player of the Week and freshman Darcy Dorton (Muncie, Ind.) was named the league's Freshman of the Week, conference officials announced Monday.
The honor is the fourth of Glass' career and brings Penn State's total Big Ten Player of the Week accolades to 69 since joining the conference for the 1991 season. These are the seventh and eighth weekly honors for the squad this season as junior Arielle Wilson was named the Player of the Week on two occasions, senior Megan Hodge earned the honor once and Dorton has been honored three times previously as the freshman of the week. This also marks the fourth straight week a Nittany Lion has been named the Player of the Week.
Glass guided the Nittany Lions to two victories last week, including a 3-1 win against Ohio State on Oct. 7 and a 3-0 sweep of the No. 5 Minnesota Gophers. Glass had six kills on six errorless swings against the Buckeyes, while dishing out 47 assists and a team-high 13 digs for her sixth double-double of the season. She also contributed four blocks in the match. At Minnesota, Glass registered 46 assists and was one of five players with double-digit digs with 11. In addition, Glass tallied three kills and three blocks against the Gophers.
For the week, Glass totaled 93 assists (13.29 assists per set), nine kills, a team-best 24 digs (3.43 digs per set) and seven total blocks (1.00 blocks per set). She also guided the Nittany Lion offense to a .340 hitting mark for the week.
Dorton started in both matches last week, playing in all seven sets. Against the Buckeyes, Dorton was second on the team with 13 kills attacking a .308 clip. She also recorded three digs and three block assists. At Minnesota, the outside hitter tied for third on the team with nine kills (.294%) and notched one dig and one block assist. She finished the weekend second on the team with 22 kills (3.14 kps) with a .302 attack percentage and had four digs and four total blocks.
The Nittany Lions are back on the road this weekend with two more Big Ten matches. On Friday, Oct. 16, Penn State travels to Ann Arbor, Mich. for a 7 p.m. matchup with the Wolverines. Penn State faces Michigan State on Saturday, Oct. 17 at 7 p.m.