ORLANDO, Fla. – After an undefeated weekend at the Sunshine Challenge, McKenna Melville was tabbed the Offensive Player of the Week and Claudia Dillon was named the Defensive Player of the Week on Monday.
"This is now the second of hopefully many accolades that McKenna receives," head coach Todd Dagenais said, "For her to receive this award on a week where we did not have to have her take 70 swings per match shows the diversity in our offense is continuing to grow as we keep getting better."
"This is Claudia's first recognition here at UCF," Dagenais continues, "She had such a fantastic first day this weekend that she earned the second start the next day. She yielded an unbelievable number of blocks, control blocks and funneled the ball into our defense well which held our opponents down at a very low rate."
The Co-Offensive Player of the Week award marks Melville's second-straight honor this season and her ninth career.
Up against tough competition, Melville notched 47 kills, 4.27 kills per set, and hit .339 over the weekend. She also had 56 points and 5.09 points per set. She ranks second in the conference with 5.09 points per set and ninth overall in the league hitting .339.
Melville recorded 21 kills while hitting .286 in the five-set win over Miami before adding 14 more kills to hit .343 against Florida Gulf Coast. The outside hitter then picked up 12 kills with zero errors to hit .444 against Florida Atlantic the following day. Melville also recorded four service aces against FAU to tie her career record.
The Eagan, Minnesota native, leads the conference and the nation with 260.5 points this season. She also leads the AAC and is highly ranked in the nation in five other categories. Melville leads the conference with 225 total kills (second in the nation), 556 total attacks (fifth in the nation), 5.66 points per set (sixth in the nation), 4.89 kills per set (sixth in the nation), and 12.09 attacks per set (16th in the nation).
Melville also now leads the nation with 12.27 career attacks per set and is second with 4.57 career kills per set.
Dillon earns her first Defensive Player of the Week award after a standout weekend where she was dominate on both sides of the floor to help the Knights go undefeated against tough competition at the Sunshine Challenge. She hit a conference-high .714 on offense while turning in the third-most blocks per set (1.45). Dillon also hit .571 with 10 kills and six block assists to kick off the week against Miami. Later in the day against FGCU, she tied a conference record by hitting .909 with 10 kills and five total blocks, including two solo, in a three-set sweep. The Evergreen, Colorado native, closed the weekend with eight kills on .700 hitting with five block assists in a straight-set sweep of FAU.
UP NEXT
The Knights open conference play at home this weekend at 7:00pm on Friday, Sept. 24, against East Carolina and 1:00pm on Sunday, Sept. 26, versus Cincinnati.
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