Greeley, Mendoza earn Big West honors
Taylor was nominated for POW, gone UCI’s Pickrell
from the Big West
Greeley Freshman of the Week
Hawai‘i outside hitter Kalei Greeley (Riverside, Calif./King HS) notched Big West Women’s Volleyball Freshman Player of the Week honors with a pair of double-digit kill performances.
Greeley averaged 3.00 kills and 2.43 digs to help the Rainbow Wahine sweep Cal Poly and defeat UC Santa Barbara in four sets at home last week. The two wins helped UH take sole control of second place in the Big West.
Nearly missing a double-double in both matches, Greeley posted 11 kills and nine digs while hitting .308 (11-3-26) against Cal Poly. She had 10 kills and eight digs to go along with one block assist against the Gauchos.
Others nominated: Niki Withers (Cal State Fullerton); Lauren Conati (CSUN); Ashley Murray (Long Beach State); Aima Eichie (UC Davis)
Career-High In Digs Nets Mendoza Defensie Honors
Hawai‘i senior Sarah Mendoza (Santa Barbara, Calif./Irvine Valley College) earned Big West Women’s Volleyball Defensive Player of the Week honors after notching a career-high 25 digs in an important conference victory.
The libero led the Rainbow Wahine with 14 digs against Cal Poly and a career-high 25 versus UC Santa Barbara in a pair of victories. The four-set win over the Gauchos came after UCSB had pinned a three-set upset on CSUN, the highest-rated Big West team in the NCAA’s Ratings Percentage Index.
Mendoza ranks No. 4 in the Big West with 4.15 digs per set, and she has recorded 20 or more digs in five matches this season.
Others nominated: Paige Reed (Cal State Fullerton); Casey Hinger (CSUN); Tyler Jackson (Long Beach State); Aima Eichie (UC Davis); Shelley Anderson (UC Irvine); Ali Spindt (UC Santa Barbara)
Big congrats to both ladies!!
i thought Hoffman (Gauchos), did pretty well also considering she is a Frosh, but hitting % wasn’t too good.
NT would’ve been a shoe in – perhaps if she took off her brace sooner 😉
+1 on NT, mei mei. She saved Sunday’s game for us.
1. re: Hoffman. i think that UCSB losing its only match of the week played into it, vs. 2 wins by Hawaii. Greeley steadied out against the Gauchos after some early struggles.
They got it in for Taylor at the Big West, They shafted her for FOY, the brace thing smells and when you compare the stats she beat out Pickrell if you count all of the stats and just not kills.
Someone brought up that the brace for the elbow injury and the brace for a knee injury are the same only the one for the knee is larger. The same company makes both and the BW allows basketball players to wear the knee brace without tape. One of our basketball players on the women’s team wears one.
I was just thinking Kahakai i wears that knee brace also.
LC. So who is the rat?
4. was very surprised Taylor did not get it. Pickrell only played in one match
I think the difference in the brace thing is that it’s on Nikki’s arm with potential contact with other players. But agree that if basketball can wear it, don’t know why volleyball can’t. Shoji said it was an interpretation thing. I’ll ask him at practice Tuesday.
Kahakai is a back-row player and wouldn’t have that kind of forceful contact.
6. there is no rat. it is just LC being LC.
The POW selection committee probably added Nikki’s not so great match stats in the Poly match. She was in one play in the 1st set and that counts as the whole set which brings her averages for the two matches way down. As for the 2013 FOY Spindt, the current libero, guess she wasn’t a good enough OH to beat out the two current LOH starters, which leads me to think that she wasn’t such a great outside hitter to merit FOY over Nikki. Guess Nikki showed them whose boss Sunday.
Spindt had a back injury, hence her playing libero. It has nothing to do with her skill, because she is very good. I was suprised nikki didn’t win FOY, but oh well. What’s done is done
9. I agree with you as far as Nikki last season. Spindt merited the FOY last season because of her 6 rotation play, where as Nikki didn’t until the very latter part of the season. But we all know who’s the more dominant outside hitter who can take over the match.
Rats ? I have no idea what you are talking about,I never said anything about rats.
think of the irony surrounding Nikki’s arm brace. If there were no controversy initiated by officials, she would not have removed it. The arm brace removal definitely enhanced her performance. She was a different player, took control of the game and no doubt became a factor in the wahine win. No complaints here.
12. i was thinking maybe the official wanted it removed because he viewed it as some kine of robotic arm and gave nikki an unfair advantage and not much because of the safety of the metal parts on the device. but nah thats what ncaa might of more likely think that it gives the player an unfair advantage (no clue at all). once nikki removed it she essentially unleashed the power of her arm that was being held – yeah it was so power that it needed to be contained by a brace 😀
^ unleashed the superpower that was confined – so powerful that it needed to be contained by a brace*
9. thanks for getting to that first Brandon. Mentioned last week that she had moved to libero because of injury, which doesn’t allow her to play front row. Not sure if she’ll return to the OH position.
8. HC agree with you on that. Taylor’s match vs. Cal Poly not very memorable, didn’t help she was injured very early in Set 1 making a defensive play.
Still both Pickrell and Taylor had career highs in one match and thought Taylor had the better overall outing.
Looking at the stats even you add the cal poly game nikki would still end up hitting in a better percentage than Pickrell. Nikki also have more digs, block and service ace.
Well, no worries! Looks like that terminators arm is back. Surely nikki will get another shot for POW before the season end. Congrats to Kalei and Sarah on the weekly honors. They deserve it
#12 – 14. Should actually thank the up official for causing the removal of the brace. Think Nikki wearing and playing with the brace helped her arm swing, and speed.
Like training with weights on your legs to work on you jump, or with weights on your bat.