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Off the Block announced on Monday the recipients of the National Position Player of the Week Awards and the National Freshman of the Week.
The National Position Player of the Week Awards recognize the libero, middle attacker, opposite, outside attacker and setter who had the best performances in NCAA Division I-II men’s volleyball during the week. In addition, the National Player of the Week is presented to the top freshman from the week in NCAA Division I-II men’s volleyball.
The Off the Block staff determines each award recipient. The winners are announced every week 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 the only position-based and freshman-based weekly awards.
Off the Block at the end of the season 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. It also presents the Freshmen All-American Team at the end of the regular season.
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.
Off the Block Weekly National Award recipients
National Setter of the Week: Wil Stanley, BYU
National Opposite of the Week: Gabi Garcia Fernandez, BYU
National Outside Attacker of the Week: Alvaro Gimeno, NJIT
National Middle Attacker of the Week: Andrew Lyons, Loyola
National Libero of the Week: Edwin Montaruli, Barton
National Freshman of the Week: Griffin Fieseler, NJIT
National Setter of the Week: Wil Stanley, BYU
No. 1/2 BYU is undefeated in matches the senior setter has played. This past weekend, Stanley had 87 assists and quarterbacked the Cougars to a .381 attack percentage in a pair of victories over No. 7/5 Pepperdine. Most notably was the performance BYU had in the first game on Friday night where they had 11 kills on 14 errorless attacks.
National Opposite of the Week: Gabi Garcia Fernandez, BYU
The reigning national player of the year, Bryan Ivie Award winner, and national server of the year winner showed this weekend why he earned all those accolades last year. He had a combined 31 kills and 9 digs in a pair of wins over No. 7/5 Pepperdine this past weekend. On Friday, he had 15 kills on 18 errorless attempts, while he had three aces in Saturday’s rematch.
National Outside Attacker of the Week: Alvaro Jimeno, NJIT
The reigning Uvaldo Acosta Memorial Co-Player of the Year had a combined 31 kills on a .644 attack percentage in a weekend split for the NJIT Highlanders. Gimeno added in seven digs, two blocks, and an ace for the weekend. NJIT has pulled even with No. 11 Penn State (and No. 12 George Mason) atop the EIVA rankings.
National Middle Attacker of the Week: Andrew Lyons, Loyola
The redshirt sophomore had a career-high six kills in both victories over Lindenwood this weekend for No. 13/9 Loyola. The 12 kills were on 16 errorless attempts, including a perfect 6/6 on Friday’s match. Lyons added in seven total blocks, three digs, and an ace for the weekend.
National Libero of the Week: Edwin Montaruli, Barton
The senior libero from Texas had 30 digs for the week, including a career-high 19 digs in a three game loss at King on Saturday.
National Freshman of the Week: Griffin Fieseler, NJIT
Make it back to back Freshman of the Week honors for the setter from Bound Brook, New Jersey. A weekend after quarterbacking the Highlanders to a combined .380 attack percentage in a pair of wins over Sacred Heart, Fieseler led NJIT to a combined. 419 attack percentage in Happy Valley.