Samantha Bricio earns fifth weekly award of season


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Can’t beat Bricio · Senior outside hitter Samantha Bricio was named the Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Week for the fifth time this season. - Can’t beat Bricio · Senior outside hitter Samantha Bricio was named the Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Week for the fifth time this season.

Can’t beat Bricio · Senior outside hitter Samantha Bricio was named the Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Week for the fifth time this season. – Can’t beat Bricio · Senior outside hitter Samantha Bricio was named the Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Week for the fifth time this season.

After leading the No. 1-ranked USC women’s volleyball team to a pair of wins against Oregon State (3-1) and No. 25 Oregon (3-0) over the weekend, senior outside hitter Samantha Bricio was named Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Week for her play during  Oct. 19-25 on Monday.

This is the Guadalajara, Mexico, native’s eighth career weekly honor as Offensive Player of the Week and her fifth time in just nine weeks of play this season. Bricio joins Logan Tom (Stanford, 2001) and Karsta Lowe (UCLA, 2014) as the only players in Pac-12 history to ever achieve this feat. Her eighth career award also ties her with Natalie Williams (UCLA) for third-most awards all-time in conference history.

Bricio helped keep the Women of Troy perfect on the season at 22-0 (10-0 Pac-12) after compiling 38 kills (5.43 kps), 23 digs (3.29) and six service aces (0.86) against the Oregon schools. The nation’s leading point scorer per set and server averaged a whopping 6.71 points per set over the weekend and upped her total number of aces to 58 on the season.

On Friday evening, Bricio had a match-high 23 kills and recorded 15 digs to account for her 10th double-double of the season, while also adding a pair of service aces and three blocks to finish with 27.0 points against the Beavers. Two days later, Bricio led USC to a sweep over the No. 25-ranked Ducks, recording an impressive nine kills on 10 swings in the first set alone before finishing with 15 kills on the day. She also added four more service aces to mark the 38th time in her career that she has had a match with three or more aces.

The two-time All-American moved up USC’s record books for career kills over the weekend as well. Bricio surpassed former USC great and Olympic silver medalist Jennifer Kessy (1995-98, 1,799 kills) for No. 2 all-time with her third kill against Oregon. Now sitting at 1,812 career kills, Bricio needs just 106 more to surpass the program’s current leader and former AVCA National Player of the Year, Alex Jupiter (2008-11, 1,918 kills).

USC remains the last undefeated team in the country and has accounted for their fourth-best start in program history at 22-0. The Women of Troy will now take that perfect record up to the state of Washington this weekend, as they face the No. 5-ranked Washington Huskies (18-2, 8-2) in Seattle on Friday at 8 p.m. before traveling to the Palouse to face Washington State (14-8, 3-7) Sunday at 12:30 p.m.

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