The honors continue to roll in for Stanford redshirt junior Gabriel Vega as he has been selected the Sports Imports/American Volleyball Coaches Association National Player of the Week, the organization announced Tuesday.
Vega, who was named the MPSF Player of the Week for the second time in his career on Monday, led the Cardinal to home wins last week against then-No. 10 UC Santa Barbara (3-0) and then-No. 3 UCLA (3-1), which put Stanford in a tie for first place in the MPSF with Long Beach State. The Kailua, Hawai’i native averaged 3.71 kills, 1.43 digs, 1.14 blocks and 4.71 points per set, while hitting .488 overall.
Against the Gauchos, Vega tallied 12 kills on .625 hitting as Stanford held UCSB to a .147 attack percentage for the match. Versus UCLA, the opposite led the squad with 14 kills, hitting .407, to go with eight digs and a career-high five blocks.
Stanford (12-2, 10-2 MPSF) now has more wins than it recorded in 2015 with 10 regular-season matches left on the docket. This marks the second career AVCA National Player of the Week honor for Vega as he was also recognized on March 10, 2015.
No. 3 Stanford hits the road this week to take on UC San Diego on Thursday and No. 13 UC Irvine on Friday, both at 7 p.m.
Baseball
Stanford freshman Tristan Beck was named Pac-12 Pitcher of the Week by the conference office on Tuesday.
Beck became the second Stanford rookie to start on Opening Day since Mike Mussina in 1988, and lived up to the moment. The Corona native hurled 6.1 shutout innings against 22nd-ranked Cal State Fullerton on Saturday afternoon.
Beck allowed just two hits, struck out two and did not surrender a walk en route to the win in his collegiate debut. At one point, he retired 11 straight batters in Stanford’s 2-0 victory at Sunken Diamond.
Beck is Stanford’s first Pac-12 Pitcher of the Week since the first overall draft pick in the 2013 MLB Draft, Mark Appel, won the award on May 27, 2013.
The only other Cardinal freshman to start on Opening Day in the last 28 years was Beck’s current junior teammate Cal Quantrill in 2014.
Stanford (3-1) is off to its best start since 2012 and continues through its season-opening run of eight games in nine days with a four-game series at Texas, starting Thursday.
Women’s water polo
Stanford redshirt sophomore goalkeeper Julia Hermann was named MPSF/Kap7 Player of the Week when the conference announced its weekly honors on Tuesday.
Hermann lowered her goals against average by a full point with a pair of stellar performances in the cage at the Davis Shootout on Sunday, making 21 total saves and allowing just five goals in eight quarters.
On the road against the host No. 5 Aggies, Hermann stopped eight shots in Stanford’s 14-5 win and guided the Cardinal defense to limit Davis to just 1-of-8 of its 6-on-5 opportunities.
She followed that up in the afternoon with her first career shutout, a 17-0 victory over Brown.
Hermann had her third double-digit save effort of the season against the Bears, tallying 13. Brown had four power-play opportunities and put shots on frame twice, both handled by Hermann.
The redshirt sophomore, seeing the first extended action of her career, lowered her goals against average to 5.83 and upped her saves per game to 8.69 in the wins.
Stanford (9-1) heads to Irvine this weekend for the UCI Invitational, opening against Loyola Marymount on Saturday at 10:30 a.m.
By Stanford Athletics
By Stanford Athletics
By Stanford Athletics