Mata Wins Defender of the Week Award

WACO, Texas – Kennedy Campbell of Xavier University (La.) collected the RRAC Volleyball Attacker of the Week award for Oct. 21-27. Xavier's Bengisu Kazazlar earned RRAC Setter of the Week, and Mia Mata of Texas A&M University-Texarkana was recognized as the RRAC Defender of the Week for the same dates. This is the 10th set of weekly winners for the 2024 RRAC volleyball season.  

Campbell posted a .527 hitting percentage as the Gold Nuggets swept Paul Quinn College (Texas) in back-to-back matches last week. The freshman middle blocker from Atlanta had the best hitting match of any Xavier player this season at .722 on Friday. Campbell averaged 5.2 kills per set with a total of 31 kills for the week. She has hit .402 in her last 11 matches. The Gold Nuggets hold on to third place in the RRAC at 10-2 with a 13-13 mark on the season.

Kazazlar provided her best performance of the season with 82 assists, including 46 in three sets on Saturday. The sophomore setter from Izmir, Turkey, averaged 13.7 assists per set. Kazazlar is second in the conference with 7.7 assists per set this season.

Mata accounted for 25 digs as the Eagles took a pair of matches against Louisiana Christian University. The sophomore outside hitter from McAllen, Texas, averaged 3.6 digs per set with only one receiving error in 46 attempts. Mata is fourth in the RRAC in digs with 277 this season. TAMUT stayed tied with Our Lady of the Lake University (Texas) for first in the RRAC at 13-1 with a 17-10 record overall.

Additional RRAC volleyball weekly nominees: Laila Beck (Paul Quinn), Emma Cother (Louisiana Christian), Paulina Dobreva (A&M-Texarkana), Ruxandra Flueras (Xavier), Mia Francis (Our Lady of the Lake), Kimberlee Joyce (A&M-Texarkana), Danelle McCullough (Huston-Tillotson), Spirit Phipp (Paul Quinn), Abby Revell (Louisiana Christian), Ashley Sanchez (Paul Quinn).