Jaali Winters Earns BIG EAST Offensive Player of the Week Honors

OMAHA, Neb. -- Senior outside hitter Jaali Winters has been named BIG EAST Offensive Player of the Week after helping Creighton Volleyball to a pair of road wins last weekend.

Winters averaged 4.79 points, 4.57 kills, 3.57 digs and 0.43 blocks per set on .389 hitting in victories at No. 18 Marquette (3-1) and at DePaul (3-0). The six-rotation senior also handled 30-of-31 serve receptions successfully and helped CU convert those into 16 first ball kills.

The Ankeny, Iowa, native opened her week leading the Bluejays in kills (25), digs (19) and hitting percentage (.442) as Creighton snapped No. 18 Marquette's nine-match win streak on Friday. She set the tone immediately with nine kills and six digs in the opening frame, and then added eight more kills in 12 swings during the second set. After four more kills and six digs in the third game, Winters closed out the match with four kills and five digs, as the Bluejays became the first club to post a conference road win over a ranked BIG EAST team since 2012.

On Saturday, Winters had seven kills and six digs in Creighton's 3-0 sweep at DePaul. She had four kills and two digs in the opening set to help CU take command against the Blue Demons and clinch the program's seventh straight 20-win campaign.

With 32 kills on the week, Winters climbed from 15^th to 12^th on the BIG EAST's all-time kills list and now owns 1,721 in her career.

This is the second Offensive Player of the Week honor for Winters this season, and third of her career. She's also twice been named BIG EAST Defensive Player of the Week (once in 2017, once in 2018), and remains the only player in league history to win both awards at any point during her career.

Creighton has now won 12 straight matches and owns a two-game lead in the league standings after a sixth straight unbeaten weekend.

St. John's Amanda Sanabia was lauded as the BIG EAST's Defensive Player of the Week, and teammate Efrosini Alexakou landed BIG EAST Freshman of the Week accolades. In addition, Creighton's Brittany Witt also landed a spot on the BIG EAST Honor Roll after the junior libero averaged a team-best 3.86 digs per set last week.

Ranked ninth nationally, first place Creighton (20-4, 12-0 BIG EAST) visits third-place St. John's (20-8, 9-4 BIG EAST) on Friday in a 6 p.m. match that will air on WatchESPN.

Jaali Winters Earns BIG EAST Offensive Player of the Week Honors

Players Mentioned

Jaali Winters

Brittany Witt

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