Bulmahn, Cookerly Claim MVC Weekly Awards
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Two wins last week resulted in two MVC weekly award winners for the Valpo volleyball program, as freshman setter Victoria Bulmahn (McCordsville, Ind./Mt. Vernon) was named the MVC Freshman of the Week and senior libero Rylee Cookerly (Brownsburg, Ind./Brownsburg) earned MVC Defensive Player of the Week honors.
After missing the season opener, Bulmahn stepped right in on Friday and dished out 30 assists in the sweep of Butler. Then, in her first career MVC match on Monday versus Loyola, Bulmahn tallied 50 assists over the four-set win and added 13 digs as well for her first career double-double.
Bulmahn’s setting helped the offense to a .242 attack clip in the win over the Ramblers, as three different Valpo players reached double figures in kills, all hitting better than .300. For the week, Bulmahn averaged 11.43 assists/set and 2.86 digs/set.
Bulmahn becomes Valpo’s first MVC Freshman of the Week honoree since fellow setter Brittany Anderson earned the accolade on Nov. 20, 2017.
Cookerly led all players in the digs department in both victories, tallying 17 digs in Valpo’s sweep of Butler and 23 digs in the four-set win over Loyola. The Loyola match was especially impressive, as 10 of her 23 digs were converted into immediate kills – an extremely high percentage for a libero.
Cookerly, who averaged 5.71 digs/set and also received 33 serves without an error over the two matches, has now scored double figures in digs in 58 consecutive contests and has posted 20+ digs 50 times in her Valpo career.
For Cookerly, it is her third career MVC Defensive Player of the Week accolade, as she earned the award one time apiece during her sophomore and junior seasons.
This marks the first time that multiple Valpo volleyball players have earned conference weekly awards in the same week since Oct. 15, 2012, when Ellen Vanden Berg was named the Horizon League Offensive Player of the Week and Taylor Root the league’s Defensive Player of the Week.