Carrasco Earns MW Offensive Player of the Week Honors
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — The Mountain West has named University of New Mexico volleyball player Mariessa Carrasco as MW Volleyball Offensive Player of the Week for matches played through September 16.
Carrasco, a redshirt junior middle blocker from San Angelo, Texas, led the Lobos offensively as they closed out the tournament portion of their non-conference schedule with a 2-1 record at the Blue/Gold Invitational in Toledo, Ohio.
“Mariessa’s game has improved greatly this season thus far,” New Mexico head coach Jeff Nelson said. “She is putting up great numbers for us and had a fantastic weekend. Offensively she led the way for us.”
Carrasco posted 30 kills at the Blue/Gold Invitational last week, hitting .456 over the team’s three matches with just four errors on 57 total attempts. She averaged 2.73 kills/set as UNM beat Youngstown State and Tennessee Tech.
In the Lobos’ 3-1 win over Tennessee Tech, Carrasco tallied a career high-tying 12 kills, hitting a career-best .571 (12-0-21). That match was her first errorless match since November 3, 2016 at Wyoming (5-0-11) and the first errorless match in her career with at least 10 kills.
Her .571 success rate is also the fourth-best in the Mountain West this season, and the only errorless statline among the league’s top 10 performances.
She also logged two straight UNM points during a key 6-1 run in set two vs. Golden Eagles, and scored the set-winning kills in both sets three and four as UNM won both sets 25-17.
Against Youngstown State, she added 10 kills on another .571 (10-2-14) hitting percentage. During the Lobos’ 25-21 first-set win, she notched five of her kills.
For her efforts on the week, she named to the Blue/Gold Invitational All-Tournament Team, the first such honor of her career.
This is Carrasco’s first career MW player of the week honor and and the team’s first since Devanne Sours was selected on October 31, 2016.
The Lobos return to action on Thursday as they open up Mountain West play vs. Colorado State in Fort Collins, Colorado.
Fans can follow @UNMLoboVB on Twitter and Instagram for information and updates on the team!