Two University of Central Arkansas volleyball players swept the Southland Conference awards for last week.
Junior Marissa Collins earned the Southland Conference Offensive Player of the Week award for the second consecutive week while teammate Alicia Dittrich earned defensive player of the week honors.
Collins helped guide Central Arkansas to three victories. She averaged 13.09 assists per set on the week, helping Central Arkansas compile a hitting percentage of .341. Against Texas Tech, the Pearland, Texas, native dished out 54 assists, had two aces, three blocks and two aces to help the Sugar Bears to their first victory over a Big 12 opponent. Against McNeese State, she tallied 48 assists, five digs, two blocks and an ace. In Central Arkansas’ straight set victory over Lamar, the junior had 42 assists and six digs.
Dittrich averaged 0.73 blocks per set to lead the team, ranked first in hitting percentage (.458) and second in kills (45). The Houston, Texas, native sits second behind teammate Taylor Hammonds for the conference lead with a .411 hitting percentage. Dittrich shined against Texas Tech when she had 10 kills, four blocks, and eight digs. Against McNeese State, the sophomore tallied 14 kills, five digs and two blocks. While finishing up an unblemished week, she turned in 11 kills, two blocks and two assists against Lamar Saturday.
The Greenbrier Panthers senior boys runners ran their best times of the season Saturday at the Russellville Cyclone cross country meet.
Paced by Ryan Treat’s 18:29.65, the Panthers placed five runners all below 20 minutes on the 5K course near the Arkansas River. Foster Hines at 18:32.12 and Austin Sitzes at 18:35.66 were close behind Treat. Also scoring for Greenbrier were Kyle Cain in 19:19.91 and Rayce Baker in 19:49.98.
Completing the Panther running attack were Ryan Beegle and Andrew Cook. There were a total of 258 runners and the Greenbrier boys took 13th of 19 teams in the field.
Also running on the cool, wet day, Panther senior girls runner Kaitlyn Watson ran the 5K course in 29:45.22. The best time for the Greenbrier junior girls was Allisyn Sitzes who ran a 16:17.41. The junior boys were represented by Brycen Vest who ran the 2-mile course in about 15:51.59.