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Liepa Lavickyte Earns Back-to-Back MW Defensive POTW Honors

by Connor Gilbert

After leading the Mountain West in total blocks for the second week in a row after another 2-0 week at home for New Mexico Volleyball, Liepa Lavickyte has been named Mountain West Defensive Player of the Week in back-to-back weeks, the league announced Monday.

It’s the third MW Defensive Player of the Week award of the season for the Lobos, who continued their recent resurgence with a pair of four-set wins over Air Force on Tuesday (25-14,21-25,25-23,25-18) and Boise State on Thursday (24-26,25-14,25-20,25-14 ). It’s the second weekly honor of Lavickyte’s career.

Lavickyte racked up 15 TB (1.88/s) last week to lead the Mountain West in that category for the second week in a row as the Lobos extended their win streak to four matches. They’ve outblocked opponents in each of their last five matches while surpassing double-digit team blocks in each. The Lobos led the league in blocks per set as a team (3.75) as well as digs per set (19.25) and opponent hitting average (.080).

The redshirt sophomore by way of Norway finished with 7 BA and one block solo against Air Force on Tuesday before recording seven more block assists on Thursday vs. Boise State, adding 13 kills on .393 hitting — the ninth-best average among MW attackers last week — while finishing with 10.5 points in both matches (2.63 points per set).

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The Lobos (13-13, 6-10 MW) hit the road for the final week of Mountain West play, squaring off with San Diego State (17-7, 9-5 MW) on Thursday before heading to Vegas to take on UNLV (12-13, 5-9 MW) on Saturday. .  Both matches will be streamed via the MW Network at GoLobos.com/Watch – find all other matchday essentials and live stats links via GoLobos.com/FollowVB. Follow @UNMLoboVB on IG, X and Facebook for match coverage, promotional information, updates, behind-the-scenes content and more.