Giulia Cardona earns AVCA National Player of the Week honors

Award is first in program history

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Giulia Cardona has been named the AVCA GameChanger Division I National Player of the Week in an announcement by the American Volleyball Coaches Association on Tuesday.

This marks the first such honor in Purple Aces volleyball history and comes on the heels of Cardona earning her third Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Week accolade on Monday.

“I am so proud of Giulia, she keeps impressing us every week.  When we think she played her best volleyball she comes back and have a better week,” UE head volleyball coach Fernando Morales said.  “This is just evidence of the hard works she puts in and how much she cares about the team the program and winning.  I can’t even express how proud of her I am and of her teammates that helped her be in this position.”

Highlighting the week for Cardona was one of the best offensive performances in MVC history and the top efforts collegiate volleyball has seen in close to four years.  In Friday’s win over UIC, Cardona tied the MVC single match kills record with 40.  She became the first player in the national to record 40 kills since 2019 when it happened on three occasions.

The last instance came when Khalia Lanier of USC had 40 against Utah on Nov. 7, 2019.  Earlier that season, Jordan Thompson of Cincinnati did so on two occasions.  Both went on to spent time playing for the US National Team.

Cardona’s 40-kill contest against UIC tied the league record of Bobbi Becker (Petersen) with 40 kills in what was the longest match in NCAA history.  UE and UIC battled for 3 hours and 44 minutes, topping the longest match ever by six minutes.  Hawaii and BYU played a 3 hour and 38-minute game in 1998.

She opened the week with 27 kills against Indiana State while hitting .396.  She added nine digs, two blocks and an ace.  Her efforts against the Flames included 94 attempts, tying her for the second-highest total in Valley history.  On top of that, she posted 16 digs, a block, ace and assist.  The weekend finale saw her add 19 kills, 11 digs, four total blocks and three aces against Valpo.  For the week, she tallied 6.62 kills per set, totaling 86 in 13 sets.  Cardona averaged 2.77 digs, 0.54 blocks and 0.38 aces per frame.

Cardona becomes the first MVC player to earn the honor since Lily Johnson of Missouri State did so in 2017.