Wagner and Whaley Clean Up SSC Honors for 2nd Week
Seniors Jessica Wagner and Berkley Whaley pick up their second consecutive SSC awards for the week of Oct. 5-11.
MELBOURNE, Fla. - For the second consecutive week, the No. 2 University of Tampa volleyball team swept the Sunshine State Conference volleyball Player of the Week awards for the period of Oct. 5-11.
Both Jessica Wagner and Berkley Whaley repeat as the SSC Offensive and Defensive Players of the Week, respectively, as announced by the conference office on Monday. The duo led Tampa to a 2-0 week in SSC action, picking up a crucial 3-2 win over No. 14 Florida Southern before earning a 3-1 victory over Florida Tech.
Middle blocker Wagner continued her offensive tear, picking up her second career Offensive Player of the Week honor. The senior blasted 31 kills at a scorching .500 clip against both No. 14 Florida Southern and Florida Tech this past week.
In a five set win over FSC, Wagner blasted 13 kills in 23 swings (.435 attack percentage) while adding three blocks for UT. In a four set win over Florida Tech, Wagner unloaded 18 kills in 27 attempts for a blistering .556 hitting mark. The Cape Coral, Fla. native leads the SSC in attack percentage, swinging at a .435 clip across the season.
Whaley mirrored with another SSC Defensive Player of the Week award, earning the accolade for the second time in her career. The reigning SSC Player of the Year has earned an astounding 13 weekly conference accolades across her storied Spartan career.
The outside hitter was stalwart in the back row for Tampa, totaling 25 digs on the weekend to combine with a perfect reception percentage on 43 targets. The senior spun her eighth and ninth double-doubles of the season, adding 20 kills and 14 digs against FSC to go along with a 17-kill, 11-dig effort versus Florida Tech.
The Spartans are 13-3 overall and a perfect 6-0 in conference matchups, earning them the top seed in the SSC for the Gulf South/Sunshine State Conference South Region Crossover Tournament beginning Friday on the campus of West Georgia.
Tampa will face Shorter to begin play Friday, facing off against the Hawks at 2:30 p.m. in the UWG Colliseum. Live stat links will be made available through www.tampaspartans.com.
Click here for the complete SSC Weekly Awards release
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