Michigan State University Athletics
Angela Morley Named National Volleyball Player Of The Week
11/19/2001 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
Nov. 19, 2001
Michigan State junior Angela Morley (Holland, Mich.) has been named the American Volleyball Coaches Association/Sports Imports Division I National Player of the Week. In addition, Morley was named Co-Big Ten Player of the Week, sharing the award with Wisconsin's Sherisa Livingston.
Morley led MSU to two stunning victories last weekend, as the Spartans upended No. 9 Ohio State and No. 14 Penn State, both on the road. She totaled 31 kills while hitting .558, and averaging 2.00 blocks per game. Morley started the weekend with 10 kills and a match-high nine blocks in a four-game upset of Ohio State, hitting .526 and committing no attack errors. She then proceeded to establish a career-high with 21 kills while hitting .576, and blocked a match-high seven shots at Penn State. She also added a season-best four assists at Penn State. For the week, she averaged two blocks and nearly four kills per game, while committing only two attack errors all weekend.
Morley becomes the first Spartan to earn AVCA National Player of the Week recognition since Jenna Wrobel earned the honor in 1998. Three other times MSU has had the distinction, as Wrobel also won the award in 1996, and Dana Cooke and Val Sterk received the honor in 1995.
This marks the first time that Morley has been named Big Ten Player of the Week. She becomes the second Spartan to earn the honor this season, joining Erin Hartley, who received the award Sept. 10.
This season, Morley leads MSU with 134 total blocks (1.47 bpg), and is on pace to break the Michigan State records of 494 career block assists and 581 career total blocks held by All-American Dana Cooke. Her current totals of 399 block assists and 462 total blocks both rank third best in MSU history.
Also, Michigan State earned its first national ranking of the season, appearing at No. 22 in the USA Today/AVCA Top 25 coaches poll released today.
The Spartans had been listed among those also receiving votes all season, and had come within one spot of moving into the Top 25, but had been unable to crack into the rankings until today. MSU earned its national ranking by becoming just the third team to win at Ohio State and Penn State since Penn State entered the Big Ten, joining the 1995 Spartan Big Ten championship squad and last year's Wisconsin team that finished as national runners-up.
MSU last appeared in the Top 25 rankings Nov. 26, 2000, when the Spartans were ranked 25th. Michigan State had been ranked as high as 16th early last season.
