Follow
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: Jakob Thelle, Hawai’i
National Opposite of the Week: Randy DeWeese, UC Santa Barbara
National Outside Attacker of the Year: Geraldo Rivera, Limestone
National Middle Attacker of the Week: Simon Andersen, Long Beach State
National Libero of the Week:Daniel Cerqua, Belmont Abbey
National Freshman of the Week: Sotiris Siapanis, Ohio State
National Setter of the Week: Jakob Thelle, Hawai’i
Thelle guided the offense to a .314 attack percentage and defensively had a match-high 12 digs while adding four blocks as No. 1/1 Hawai’i defeated No. 12 UC San Diego in four games on Friday to open a two-match conference series. The setter also helped the Rainbow Warriors hit .448 and had a career-high seven kills in a sweep on Saturday to conclude the series.
National Opposite of the Week: Randy DeWeese, UC Santa Barbara
DeWeesse led all players with 18 kills on a season-high .654 attack percentage in a sweep against CSUN on Friday. He also had a match-high 20 kills while hitting .471 as No. 3/3 UC Santa Barbara defeated CSUN in three games on Saturday to complete the two-match series sweep.
National Outside Attacker of the Year: Geraldo Rivera, Limestone
Rivera led all players with a career-high 28 kills on a .558 attack percentage and had four aces as Limestone defeated Lees-McRae in four games on Tuesday. He also finished with a match-high 22 kills and added five digs in a five-game road loss to Lincoln Memorial on Friday.
National Middle Attacker of the Week: Simon Andersen, Long Beach State
Andersen finished with a match-high eight blocks and had 12 kills and zero errors on a .667 attack percentage as No. 7/7 Long Beach State rallied from a two-game deficit to beat No. 13 UC Irvine in five games on Saturday. The middle attacker also had a match-high six blocks in a four-game victory against the Anteaters on Friday to open the two-match series.
National Libero of the Week:Daniel Cerqua, Belmont Abbey
Cerqua had a combined 47 digs in three ConfCarolinas matches last week, including a team-high 12 digs in a five-game victory against King. The libeo led all players with a season-high 20 digs in a four-game loss to Barton on Saturday.
National Freshman of the Week: Sotiris Siapanis, Ohio State
Siapanis finished with a match-high 14 kills on a .385 attack percentage and added five digs in a sweep against Lindenwood on Friday to open a two-match series. The outside attacker also had both a match-high 13 kills on a .435 attack percentage and six digs in a series-finale sweep on Saturday.