Rainbow Wahine Reyn Akiu named defensive player of the week
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BRUCE ASATO / BASATO@STARADVERTISER.COM
Hawaii libero Reyn “Tita” Akiu got a dig in the fourth set of the San Diego State vs Hawaii Women’s Volleyball match at Stan Sheriff Center, Sunday.
Senior libero Reyn Akiu earned her first Big West weekly award — as well as the first for Hawaii this volleyball season — when being named the defensive player of the week today.
The Kamehameha Schools product averaged 5.38 digs to help the Rainbow Wahine finish second at the Outrigger Volleyball Challenge. The transfer from Texas Tech had a combined 70 digs in the three matches en route to being named to the all-tournament team.
She had 22 digs against Idaho, which was a high for her Wahine career, and then upped her UH best to 26 in the five-set loss to Portland. She added 22 more digs in Sunday’s win over San Diego State.
Junior middle Natasha Burns was nominated for player of the week honors which went to Cal Poly junior hitter Torrey van Winden. She helped the then-No. 22 Mustangs upset then-No. 9 UCLA twice last week.
Cal Poly (7-1) moved up to No. 14 in today’s AVCA Top 25 while UCLA (4-2) dropped into a tie for 16th. BYU (8-0) moved up two spots to No. 1, receiving 54 of the 64 first-place votes.
Oregon (5-3), which travels to Hawaii for Thursday-Friday matches, jumped six spots to No. 12.