BOWLING GREEN, Ky.-Western Kentucky University volleyball player Melanie Stutsman was honored by Collegiate Volleyball Update as its CVU.com National Player of the Week for her performance last week against Lipscomb and at the Coke/Michigan Invitational.
Stutsman and the Lady Toppers defeated Lipscomb at home 3-0 on Tuesday before traveling to Ann Arbor, Mich., last weekend and taking the tournament title with wins over Duke, No. 22 Michigan and Eastern Michigan to improve to 13-3 on the year and move up to No. 24 in the AVCA Top 25 Poll.
Against Lipscomb, Stutsman tossed out 29 assists with her team hitting .341. She was without an error herself on the attack, tallying seven kills on .538 hitting to go with six digs and two blocks.
The momentum continued into the Coke/Michigan Invitational, as WKU opened with a 3-1 win over Duke in which the junior dished out 50 assists. Then came the Lady Toppers' 3-2 upset of No. 22 Michigan. In that victory, Stutsman set WKU to a .338 hitting percentage as she had a season-high 54 assists, six kills, two digs and two blocks.
To wrap up the week, WKU downed Eastern Michigan in four, with Stutsman recording 45 helpers, as four players reached double figure in kills. The junior had eight kills of her own to go with five digs.
The Floyd Knobs, Ind., native leads the Sun Belt Conference in assists with 626 this season, good for 10.98 per set.
Stutsman is the third WKU player to be honored with the CVU.com weekly award. The last was senior Jordyn Skinner in 2011.
WKU is back on the court Tuesday, September 18 against Belmont at 6 p.m. for the team's last non-conference game of the season. This weekend, WKU will host its conference opener against Troy on Friday, September 21 at 7 p.m. before facing South Alabama at 1 p.m. on Saturday.
