Argentina native named MVC Player and Freshman of the Week
LOUIS – University of Evansville volleyball player Giulia Cardona has accomplished a feat that has not been seen in the Missouri Valley Conference since 2014 as she was named the league’s Player and Freshman of the Week on Monday.
Cardona becomes the first MVC player to earn both awards since Oct. 27, 2014 when Abbie Lehman of Wichita State earned both accolades. This is the second consecutive Freshman of the Week honor for Cardona and she becomes Evansville’s third player this season to be recognized as the Player of the Week. Alondra Vazquez won the award following the opening weekend of play before Melanie Feliciano took the honor last week.
Prior to this season, Evansville had just nine student-athletes named the Player of the Week in volleyball. This fall also marks the first time UE has had more than one player recognized as the Player of the Week in a single season.
Continuing to be a presence for the Aces in every way possible, Cardona recorded 4.75 kills and 1.92 digs per set in leading the Aces to wins over Missouri State, UNI and Drake. The freshman recorded 57 kills while hitting .301. She had a total of 23 digs and four block assists.
The week started with an impressive 3-0 home win over Missouri State where Cardona recorded 17 kills, 5 digs and 2 block assists. She hit .486 in the contest while adding an assist. Her top contribution came at the end of the second set, picking up three kills in the final six points to help UE take a 2-0 lead over the Bears. Cardona opened the weekend with a 19-kill effort while hitting .250 in Evansville’s first-ever road win over Northern Iowa. She added seven digs and a block assist. With UE trailing by an 11-8 score in the third set, Cardona made the difference, registering three consecutive kills to erase the deficit. With the score knotted at 17-17, she had a kill that gave Evansville the lead for good.
In Saturday’s come-from-behind win over Drake, Cardona fell just one short of her career mark with 21 kills. She added 11 digs on the way to her fifth double-double of the season. The win over the Bulldogs marked the fifth MVC triumph in a row for UE, the first such streak for the program since joining the league in 1994.
