Luhrsen, Birks earn Big Ten awards
Updated: November 26, 2012
Park Ridge, Ill. - The Fighting Illini's
Annie Luhrsen and Jocelynn Birks
took home two of the final Big Ten weekly awards of 2012. Luhrsen earns
her first Big Ten Setter of the Week award and second career weekly
award overall, while Birks garners her fourth Freshman of the Week award
and fifth Big Ten weekly honor this season.
In all, the Illini earned seven weekly awards this season, with setter Alexis Viliunas being named Freshman of the Week on Oct. 15.
Senior
setter Annie Luhrsen was named Big Ten Setter of the Week after
averaging 14.0 assists, 2.1 digs
and 0.5 blocks in a pair of wins over Northwestern and Iowa. She posted a
season-high 64 assists in the 3-2 victory at Northwestern, adding nine
digs and three blocks against the Wildcats. She then followed with 48
assists in just 55 total attempts at Iowa,
earning a .873 efficiency, while adding eight digs and a block. Luhrsen
earns her first weekly honor of the season, and her second overall,
after taking home Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week honors in the
final week of the 2011 regular season, prior to
the 2012 creation of the Setter of the Week category.
Redshirt
freshman outside hitter Jocelynn Birks takes home her third Big Ten
Freshman of the Week honor
in the past four weeks, after averaging 5.9 kills, 2.8 blocks and 0.6
blocks in the pair of road victories this past week. She tallied a
career-high 28 kills to go along with 13 digs and four blocks at
Northwestern, registering her 11th 20-kill match and 13th
double-double of the season. She followed that performance with 19
kills, nine digs and a block at Iowa, to finish the season ranked 10th
all-time at Illinois with 510 total kills, becoming just the second
Illini freshman in the 500-kill club.
Since the inception of the Big Ten Freshman of the Week honor in 2009, just two players have earned more
than four rookie honors in the same season (Darcy Dorton, PSU, 2009; Deja McClendon, PSU, 2010), and Birks ties Jennifer Beltran's
four
in 2010 for the best in Illinois history. Penn State's Micha Hancock has
earned six weekly honors this season, five of them setter honors,
making her the only player ever to earn more than five weekly honors in a
single season. Birks' five total honors ties
Ohio State's Stacey Gordon (2004), Minnesota's Christine Tan (2008) and
Purdue's Ariel Turner (2011) behind Hancock.
Purdue
outside hitter Ariel Turner took home the final Big Ten Player of the
Week award this afternoon,
after averaging 6.0 kills on .373 hitting, 4.4 digs and 1.3 blocks per
set in wins over Indiana (3-0) and Wisconsin (3-1). Turner opened the
weekend with 18 kills, 14 digs and six blocks in a sweep of the
Hoosiers, before tallying 24 kills, 17 digs and three
blocks against the Badgers. The senior reels in her ninth career weekly
honor, including her seventh Player of the Week nod.
Penn
State middle blocker Katie Slay was named Big Ten Defensive Player of
the Week, after registering 13
blocks in a pair of sweeps of No. 14 Ohio State and Michigan State. The
junior tallied eight blocks against the Spartans and five vs. the
Buckeyes, while hitting .464 with an average of 2.5 kills per set. The
Raleigh, N.C., native earns her sixth Defensive
Player of the Week award and her seventh overall weekly honor.
Birks
shares her Freshman of the Week honor with Penn State outside Megan
Courtney. The Dayton, Ohio, native
registered 11 blocks over the weekend, tallying six against Michigan
State and five, including two solo, against Ohio State. It is her first
career honor, and the 12th overall for the Nittany Lions this season.
