Youngstown, Ohio — Youngstown State senior outside hitter Abbie Householder has been named an Under Armour Horizon League Volleyball Player of the Week for the period ending Oct. 26, the conference office announced on Monday.
Householder earned the weekly award for the first time this season and the second time in her career. She is Youngstown State's third player to be recognized as Horizon League Player of the Week this season, marking the first time since 2014 that three different Penguins have received the honor. Gabriela Machin was the award winner on Sept. 2, and Kameron Blizniak earned the honor last week.
In a pivotal home series to begin the second half of Horizon League play, Householder led the Penguins to back-to-back sweeps of Milwaukee over the weekend. YSU earned its first 3-0 win over the Panthers since 2015 on Friday, then followed with another sweep on Saturday to move two wins ahead of Milwaukee in the league standings.
Householder was the only player in the league to rank among the top six in both kills and digs per set last week, averaging 4.17 kills and 5.00 digs. She also ranked third in the circuit with 0.67 aces per set, and she was fifth with 5.00 points per set. Householder led all players in digs in both matches against the Panthers, finishing with 17 on Friday and 13 on Saturday. She posted 11 kills on Friday, and she had a match-high 14 kills on just 25 attempts on Saturday.
For the season, Householder leads the conference with 4.46 points per set, and she is in the top 12 in kills per set, aces per set, digs per set and hitting percentage.
Youngstown State will play three road matches this week, starting with a contest at Robert Morris on Tuesday at 6 p.m. The Penguins will then play at Oakland on Friday and Saturday in their final two road matches of the regular season.
Years YSU has had three different players be named a conference player of the week
1995 — Tracie Bender, Lisa Greegor, Amy Hermann, Jaime Pirotte
1999 — Melissa Lyczkowski, Kristen Meech, Vickie Robinson
2012 - Jenna Cavanaugh, Lexi Egler, Missy Hundelt
2013 - Jenna Cavanaugh, Missy Hundelt, Aly Ryan, Erika West
2014 - Val Jeffery, Aly Ryan, Nikki Thompson, Shannon Watson
