By Mike Lehman, TTU Sports Information
BRENTWOOD, Tenn. – For the third time this season, Tennessee Tech volleyball senior Ashley Hand and junior Taylor Dorsey collected top honors from the Ohio Valley Conference for their prowess on the hardwood, with the league announcing its weekly accolades Monday afternoon.
Hand hauled in her third OVC Setter of the Week award this season while Dorsey was named the OVC Defensive Player of the Week for the third time. The pair of Tech veterans were also recognized on Sept. 27 and Oct. 25, making them the first pair of Golden Eagle teammates to collect league honors in the same week three times in a single season.
Playing in her final matches in the Hooper Eblen Center, Hand picked up her fourth career OVC Setter of the Week accolades after quarterbacking an offense that couldn't be stopped. Averaging 12.75 assists per set, the senior led the purple and gold to a .257 attack percentage and average of 14.38 kills per set, including a mark of .267 in the weekend's opening victory over Eastern Illinois.
Tech racked up 57 terminations in the match, with Hand distributing 50 helpers, and followed it up with 58 more in the second win of the weekend over the Panthers. In the second match, Hand chucked out 52 more assists for a 13.00 per set average, leading Tech to a .248 attack percentage. The Greenwood Village, Colo. native also collected 11 digs in the second win, marking her 11th double-double of the season.
Currently ranked seventh in program history in career assists with a mark of 2,774, Hand needs just 97 more to pass Jenny (Pruett) Turner for sixth all-time. Her current career rate of 9.63 assists per set ranks second in program history while her season rate of 10.36 assists per set ranks fourth in the rally-scoring era.
Dorsey was once again a force to reckoned with on both sides of the ball, shining particularly bright on defense. The middle blocker compiled a whopping 18 rejections in just eight sets for an average of 2.25 for the weekend. She also averaged 3.13 kills per set and totaled four service aces, accounting for 39.0 points.
A native of Birmingham, Ala., she produced seven block assists and a solo stop in the opening win over EIU, chipping in 14 kills on a .542 attack percentage. Dorsey followed it with her fourth career double-double, blocking 10 total attacks with nine assists and a solo rejection. The junior also delivered 11 kills while hitting .435 with three aces
Over the weekend, Dorsey broke a tie with Bonnie Zoss to rank fourth on Tech's all-time career block assists list and now sits just four away from passing Annette Kupka for third place. She also currently ranks fifth on the Golden Eagle list for total blocks, needing just three more to accumulate 400 for her career.
Tech wraps up the regular season with a pair of road matches at in-state rival Belmont. The final match-ups feature start times of 6:00 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 12 and 11:30 a.m. on Saturday, Nov. 13.
Photos by Jim Dillon