Penn State's Haleigh Washington picks up pair of weekly honors

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Senior Haleigh Washington (Colorado Springs, Co.) was named both the Sports Imports/American Volleyball Coaches Association National Player of the Week and the Big Ten Player of the Week for the first time this season on Tuesday morning, as announced by the AVCA and the Big Ten Conference office.

RANKINGS: Minnesota stays No. 1, followed by Florida 

Washington was dominant on the weekend, continuing to be a consistent presence for the Nittany Lions. She finished with a weekend total of 22 kills on a clip of .435, adding 13 blocks, four digs, and an ace.  She was named ‘Best Blocker’ of the Texas A&M Tournament.

Washington put away 10 kills on a .625 hitting percentage against Stanford, adding a match-best seven blocks, helping the Nittany Lions out-block one of the top blocking teams in the nation, 12.0-7.0.

Congrats to @PennStateVBALL Middle Blocker Haleigh Washington for winning the @SportsImportsVB / #AVCA Division I Player of the Week! pic.twitter.com/PawLi80Rmt

— AVCA (@AVCAVolleyball) September 5, 2017

Against Texas A&M, she tallied 12 kills on a clip of .417, adding six blocks. Washington was instrumental in closing out the key third set against the Aggies, as she put away seven kills on all seven of her attack attempts.

This marks the sixth career Big Ten weekly honor for Washington. In her freshman season, she earned Big Ten Player of the Week once (11/3/14), and picked up Player of the Week honors (9/7/15, 9/21, 9/28, 10/26, 11/23) in her sophomore season. The national honor is the first of Washington’s career.

Haleigh Washington of @PennStateVBALL is the #B1GVolleyball Player of the Week after averaging 2.4 kills/1.4 blocks per set with a .500 hit% pic.twitter.com/V4uZINv2ly

— B1G Volleyball (@B1GVolleyball) September 5, 2017

Penn State heads to Champagne, Ill., for the Big Ten/Pac-12 Challenge this coming weekend. The Nittany Lions will open with a bout against Colorado at 5:30 p.m. ET, and they will meet up again with No. 4 Stanford on Saturday at 6 p.m. ET.