Senior Lauren Budde Named AVCA Division III National Player of the Week
AVCA RELEASE
St. Louis, Mo., October 4, 2011 – Senior middle hitter Lauren Budde of the second-ranked Washington University in St. Louis volleyball team was named the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Division III National Player of the Week, it was announced Tuesday afternoon by the organization.
It is the second time in her career that Budde has earned the national distinction and the first time since Oct. 13, 2009. It is the 24th time in program history a student-athlete has garnered National Player of the Week accolades from the AVCA.
Budde continued her impressive senior campaign by helping the Bears post a perfect 3-0 record with three sweeps at the first University Athletic Association (UAA) round robin of the season on Oct. 1-2, in St. Louis, Mo. She paced the Bears with 47 kills to average 5.22 kills per set while hitting .368 with 27 digs and eight total blocks.
Budde recorded a double-double in the Bears’ win over Carnegie Mellon University, attacking a blistering .522 with 15 kills to go along with 17 digs. She ended the weekend by etching her name in the Washington University record books with four digs against New York University.
Budde became just the eighth student-athlete and first middle hitter in school history to reach 1,000 kills and digs in a career. She reached 1,000 kills two weeks ago against Concordia College-Moorhead and exactly 1,000-career digs in the sweep of New York.
Budde leads Washington University in kills (198), hitting percentage (.407), service aces (28) and total blocks (45), and ranks second on the team with 154 digs. She is currently 10th in Division III averaging 5.01 points per set and eighth in hitting percentage and 32nd in kills per set (3.88).
Washington University is off to the hottest start in school history as the Bears have posted a perfect 17-0 record, and with their 17th-consecutive sweep against New York they set a new school record by winning 51-straight sets. Washington U. now sits just six sets shy of matching the all-time Division III mark of 57, set by the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh during the 2007 season.
Washington U. returns to action on Friday-Saturday, Oct. 7-8, when it hosts the Washington University Invitational at the Washington University Field House in St. Louis, Mo. The Bears face Fontbonne University on Friday at 5:30 p.m. and Millikin University at 7:30 p.m.