Michigan State University Athletics
Vanessa King Named Big Ten Player of the Week
9/29/2008 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
Sept. 29, 2008
Complete Release in PDF Format 
EAST LANSING, Mich. - Junior middle blocker Vanessa King (Spring Lake, Mich.) has been named Big Ten Player of the Week as announced by the Big Ten Conference office today. King is the second Spartan to earn a weekly conference honor this season, joining sophomore libero Allyson Karaba (Muskegon, Mich.), who garnered Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week back on Sept. 8. King is the first Spartan to win Big Ten Player of the Week honors since Jenilee Rathje (Mount Pleasant, Mich.) won the award on Sept. 10 last season. The honor is the second of her career after she earned Defensive Player of the Week back on Nov. 13, 2006.
King played an instrumental role in giving the Spartans their ninth and 10th consecutive victories this weekend against Ohio State and No. 21 Michigan. King had a career match against in-state rival, Michigan, helping knock the No. 21 team from the ranks of the unbeaten. King tallied career-bests in kills (18) and total attempts (31), while hitting .584 as she had just one attack error. She also added 13 kills and two service aces while hitting a team-best .364 against Ohio State.
King was equally as impressive on the defensive side of the net over the weekend, adding 14 total blocks and six digs to her ledger. Her play was a key reason for the Spartans' first 2-0 Big Ten start since 1996.
Over the last nine matches, King has been one of the most dominant middle blockers in the nation as she is hitting .475 with 108 kills while tallying 49 total blocks. In that stretch, King has four matches in which she had just one attack error, has hit better than .400 seven times and has six double-digit kill efforts.
The Spartans are currently riding a 10-match winning streak, their longest since 1996 when they ran off 17 in a row, including 12 in a row to open Big Ten play. King and the Spartans will look to improve their winning streak this weekend as they will travel to Indiana on Friday and No. 1 Penn State on Saturday. Both matches will feature live audio with the voice of the Spartans, John Kreger, and live stats at www.msuspartans.com.
