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DENVER – Utah Valley sophomore outside hitter Kazna Tarawhiti and NM State junior middle blocker Julianna Salanoa have been named the Western Athletic Conference Offensive and Defensive Volleyball Players of the Week, respectively, for the week of Sept. 30-Oct. 6. This is the first WAC Player of the Week honor of the season and the third of her career for Tarawhiti and the second of the season and third of her career for Salanoa.

Tarawhiti, a Lehi, Utah native, averaged 5.36 points, 4.71 kills and 0.43 service aces as the Wolverines went 2-0 on the road last week. She had 14 kills on .367 hitting to go along with three service aces in a sweep of CSU Bakersfield and added a match-high 19 kills in a four-set win at Grand Canyon. Tarawhiti also added 21 digs for her sixth double-double of the season. Tarawhiti leads the WAC in both kills and points per set on the season. 

Salanoa, an Olympia, Wash. native, averaged a WAC-best 2.33 blocks per set last week. In NM State's lone match of the week, she tallied seven blocks in a sweep of defending champion UT Rio Grande Valley. Salanoa leads the WAC this season with 1.60 blocks per set.

Other offensive nominees included: Megan Sester of California Baptist averaged 3.89 kills on .306 hitting in a pair of matches last week ... CSU Bakersfield's Milica Vukobrat averaged 3.50 kills on .295 hitting and 0.38 service aces per set as the Roadrunners went 1-1 on the week ... Yeni Murillo of Grand Canyon averaged 3.45 kills as the Lopes went 2-1 on the week ... Kansas City's Alli Schomers averaged 11.14 assists, 0.57 kills and 0.29 service aces per set on the week ... Savannah Davison of NM State averaged 4.0 kills on .370 hitting, 0.67 service aces and 5.3 points per set last week ... UT Rio Grande Valley's Barbara Silva averaged 4.2 points and 4.00 kills on .403 hitting last week.

Other defensive nominees included: California Baptist's Nicole Abreu averaged 3.67 digs per set ... Ally Barber of CSU Bakersfield averaged 1.13 blocks and 0.25 digs per set ... Grand Canyon's Teagan DeFalco averaged 4.18 digs per set last week ... Ty Lukes of Kansas City averaged 1.57 blocks per set ... UT Rio Grande Valley's Debora Nazario averaged 3.13 digs and 0.75 blocks per set ... Seren Merrill of Utah Valley averaged 5.29 digs per set.