Bricio repeats as Pac-12 Player of the Week


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Senior outside hitter Samantha Bricio was named the Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Week for the second consecutive week. She started off the season with the nomination and received it once again. This is the fifth time that Bricio has been awarded the honor.

This past weekend, Bricio and the Women of Troy played at the 2015 UNI Tournament in Cedar Falls, Iowa. Bricio was named the tournament MVP. This was the seventh time she received such an honor and the 12th time she was named to an all-tournament team.

In her three matches at the tournament, Bricio surpassed the 1,000 career-dig mark and the 1,500 career-kill mark, making her only the sixth Woman of Troy to reach such a feat. She also collected her third double-double of the season and 44th of her career. She recorded three service aces in a match for the 29th time in her career.

As a team, the No. 6 Women of Troy (6-0) jumped up two spots in the rankings after the tournament victory this past weekend. This is the 15th time in USC history that the team has started the season 6-0 and the ninth time under head coach Mick Haley. The Women of Troy are on a 17-straight-set win streak.

For the conference as a whole, the Pac-12 has been having a dominant start to the 2015 volleyball season. To start off this season’s play, Pac-12 teams went 27-7 with 17 three-set sweeps.

In recognition of their dominant play, eight teams are ranked in the Top 25 of the AVCA Coaches Poll with four being in the top 10: No. 3 Stanford, No. 6 USC, No. 8 Washington, No. 10 Arizona State, No. 12 Oregon,   No. 13 Arizona, No. 17 UCLA and No. 23 Colorado.

Four of the conference teams are still undefeated to open the season — Arizona, Arizona State, USC, Washington — and 10 teams have a record of .500 or better.  Pac-12 teams have defeated seven ranked non-conference teams so far with USC leading the pack with three of those wins.

Pac-12 teams can credit their success to the strength of their defense. Nine teams have kept their opponents to a .178 or worse hitting percentage. Arizona State is leading the charge by keeping their opponents to a .076 hitting average.

The Conference of Champions is living up to their name in women’s volleyball. In the NCAA Tournament last season, the   Pac-12 saw an unprecedented 10 teams receive bids and open up postseason play 10-0. The          Pac-12 is grabbing a lot of attention in women’s volleyball. The conference once again has the most television coverage of any conference in the country with 95 matches broadcast live.

The conference also dominates in recruiting. Seven teams landed at least one Volleyball Magazine FAB 50 player. Oregon led the conference with four recruits and Stanford signed the nation’s top recruit opposite Hayley Hodson, who has already made an immediate impact with the Cardinal.