Today, the Ohio Valley Conference announced that Tennessee State University Tiger volleyball players Gina Rivera-Ortiz and Johanna Alcantara earned OVC Player of the Week honors.

For Rivera-Ortiz it was the third time this season that she was named the top defender. The graduate student scooped up a total of 64 digs in nine sets helping her team to a home sweep of Southern Illinois University of Edwardsville. After getting 27 digs in the five-set victory over SIUE on Friday, she followed up with 37 on Saturday. The 37 digs are a personal best for her in a four set match. For the weekend, she only had one receiving error on 58 total attempts for a .983 percentage.

This is also the third time this season that Alcantara has been named as the top newcomer and the first time that she has earned the best offensive player for the week. She was a force in the two victories this past weekend. Her 27 kills and blistering 513 hitting percentage were both season highs. On Saturday, she had 19 kills swinging at .310. On defense, she contributed with six total blocks.    
  
"This just shows the hard work and effort that we have done as a team," said head coach Donika Sutton. "Gina wants every ball that comes over the net. She's the most competitive kid that I have ever coached. She wants to win. The think with Jo has been consistency. She been able to find her rhythm, find her set and really being aggressive. This is big for us to have them be honored again."

The Tigers will be back in action this Saturday at home with two games against Eastern Illinois.