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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: Jack Sarnowski, King
National Opposite of the Week: Jaylen Jasper, Pepperdine
National Outside Attacker of the Week: Ryan Ka, UC San Diego
National Middle Attacker of the Week: Tyler Mitchem, Lewis
National Libero of the Week: Ryan Pecsok, UC Santa Barbara
National Freshman of the Week: Parker Van Buren, Loyola
Jack Sarnowski
The junior setter dished out 101 assists in three King wins last week. His 36 assists was a season-high and second-best mark for his career. The Tornadoes had a .340 attack percentage in the three matches, including a season-best mark of .435 in their conference-opener versus Lees-McRae.
Jaylen Jasper, Pepperdine
Jasper tallied 34 kills on a combined .563 attack percentage in a pair of matches last week versus UC Irvine. The graduate transfer from Stanford also had 12 blocks and 11 digs.
Ryan Ka, UC San Diego
The junior middle attacker had a combined 38 kills for the Tritons who defeated BYU in a pair of five-game matches in Provo over the weekend. UC San Diego was previously 0-44 before the weekend sweep. Ka added 13 digs and five blocks defensively.
Tyler Mitchem, Lewis
The graduate middle attacker had 30 kills on a .510 attack percentage in a split with ranked conference foes. Mitchem also had a pair of aces to go along with seven blocks.
Ryan Pescok, UC Santa Barbara
The sophomore Libero had 52 digs in three matches (two wins) on the road versus ranked opponents. Pecsok’s 24 kills on Saturday night is the highest individual mark this season by a player in NCAA Division I men’s volleyball.
Parker Van Buren, Loyola
The redshirt freshman opposite had 36 kills on a combined .537 attack percentage in a pair of wins in their conference-opening weekend. Van Buren had a season-best .682 attack percentage versus Quincy on Thursday afternoon, while he had a season-best 20 kills on Saturday night. He also had six blocks and five digs in the two wins.