Briggs, Dieudonne awarded C-USA weekly honors

Western Kentucky Hilltoppers setter Nadia Dieudonne (2) playing against the Mercer Bears on Jan. 24, 2021 in Diddle Arena. WKU begins the season 3-0 after taking down Mercer and Bellarmine. 

Drew Toennies

Conference USA has recognized WKU sophomore Paige Briggs and WKU senior Nadia Dieudonne as the week’s most impressive volleyball performers.

Briggs earned the title of Offensive Player of the Week and Dieudonne received the Setter of the Week title.

Briggs’ Offensive Player of the Week honor is her first ever as she received Freshman of the Week seven times last season.

Both players helped WKU to a pair of wins on Sunday, which was 78 days after the season opener. The Hilltoppers improved to 3-0 on the season.

Briggs put on quite the performance as she racked up 30 kills on 56 swings. In the opening match, she recorded a trio of aces over their opponents. Briggs also added 11 digs and five blocks in the opening match. Not long after the opening match, Briggs registered her third double-double with 13 kills, .522 hitting percentage, 11 digs, and two blocks, which gave her a flawless serve-receive rating.

Briggs averaged 4.29 kills per set, 3.14 digs per set, and 1.0 blocks per set to average 5.29 total points per set.

Dieudonne was also a top performer in the two-win weekend as she had a combined hitting percentage of .420 across the match and a rate of .443 in the sweep of Bellarmine. The senior also tallied 35 assists, seven digs, and a perfect serve and reception rating in WKU’s 3-1 win over Mercer. Dieudonne also earned 42 assists and four digs against Bellarmine. Collectively, 49 percent of Dieudonne’s sets found the floor for kills by her teammates.

The Louisville native now has six C-USA Setter of the Week awards across the two seasons she has spent at WKU.

Women’s basketball beat reporter Drew Toennies at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @drew_toennies.