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Five college men’s volleyball players have earned national awards for being the best at their position.
Off the Block announced Monday afternoon that UC Irvine’s Karl Apfelbach and Dante Chakravorti, Lewis’ TJ Murray, Limestone’s Florian Ruhm and Pepperdine’s David Wieczorek were selected for the Off the Block National Position Player of the Week Awards.
The National Position Player of the Week Awards recognize the libero, middle attacker, outside attacker, opposite and setter who had the best performances in NCAA Division I-II men’s volleyball during the week.
The Off the Block staff determines each award recipient. In addition, the winners are announced every Monday during the regular season on the Off the Block website, offtheblockblog.com.
While there are other weekly national awards in college men’s volleyball, these are only position-based weekly awards. Off the Block at the end of the season also presents the Lloy Ball Award to the nation’s top setter, Bryan Ivie Award to the nation’s top opposite, the Karch Kiraly Award to the nation’s top outside attacker, the Ryan Millar Award to the nation’s top middle attacker and the Erik Shoji Award to the nation’s top libero.
Off the Block is a national award winning website that launched in 2011 and is the nation’s leader in college men’s volleyball coverage.
National Position Player of the Week Awards
National Setter of the Week: Dante Chakravorti, UC Irvine
National Opposite of the Week: Karl Apfelbach, UC Irvine
National Outside Attacker of the Week: David Wieczorek, Pepperdine
National Middle Attacker of the Week: TJ Murray, Lewis
National Libero of the Week: Florian Ruhm, Limestone
Off the Block National Setter of the Week: Dante Chakravorti, UC Irvine
Chakravorti guided the offense to at least a .350 attack percentage in both of No. 6/5 UC Irvine’s non-conference victories against No. 5/3 BYU during the weekend. He also had match-high 13 digs and added three blocks as the Anteaters beat the Cougars in five games in the series finale on Saturday.
Off the Block National Opposite of the Week: Karl Apfelbach, UC Irvine
Apfelbach led all players with both a career-high 25 kills and six aces as No. 6/5 UC Irvine beat No. 5/3 BYU in four games to open their two-match non-conference series. In addition, Apfelbach contributed 15 kills and a match-high six blocks in the series finale to help the Anteaters win in five games on Saturday.
Off the Block National Outside Attacker of the Week: David Wieczorek, Pepperdine
Wieczorek returning to the court after missing the first three matches of the season finished with both a match-high 14 kills on a .444 attack percentage and two aces in a road sweep against George Mason. The All-MPSF outside attacker also led all players with 15 kills while hitting .500 in a four-game victory versus Saturday as No. 12 Pepperdine went undefeated at the Uvaldo Acosta Invitational.
Off the Block National Middle Attacker of the Week: TJ Murray, Lewis
Murray finished with 11 kills and zero attack errors on a .647 attack percentage along with a match-high seven blocks in a four-game victory against No. 9/9 CSUN on Thursday. He also for the second straight match had zero attack errors as he had 10 kills and led all players with seven blocks to help No. 10/10 Lewis beat No. 15 UC Santa Barbara on Saturday.
Off the Block National Libero of the Week: Florian Ruhm, Limestone
Ruhm had a combined 43 digs in three matches last week, including a match-high 15 digs in a sweep against Queens for Limestone’s first victory of the season. He also added 13 digs as Limestone defeated Alderson Broaddus in a four-game non-conference match on Saturday.