Nov. 16, 2010
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Senior Lauren Rapp has been named the American Volleyball Coaches Association’s National Player of the Week it was announced Tuesday. The honor is the first of Rapp’s career.
The senior captain led the Blue and White to a pair of impressive victories that included an upset of No. 15 LSU in five sets on Sunday. Against the Tigers, Rapp struck for 17 kills and added 10 digs for her 12th career double-double effort and the fifth of the season. She contributed a career-best six assists while also turning back four opponent attacks. In UK’s decisive fifth-set victory, Rapp had five of the team’s 13 kills in the stanza to lead the Wildcats to a 15-11 match-clinching win.
In addition to the upset of the Tigers, Rapp paced the Blue and White to a 3-0 sweep of Arkansas. The Indianapolis, native led the team with 13 kills on a blazing .455 hitting percentage. She also posted a match-high five blocks while scooping up seven digs.
For the week, Rapp averaged a team-leading 3.75 kills per frame on .338 hitting. She also notched nine blocks in the two matches for an average of 1.12 blocks per stanza. Rapp dished out an average of one assist per set and tallied 2.12 digs per frame to rally the Wildcats.
Rapp is the first player under Kentucky Head Coach Craig Skinner to earn a national weekly award. Yesterday, the senior was tabbed the Southeastern Conference’s Player of the Week for her efforts which marked the second time in her career she had attained that honor. Rapp is the third SEC player to win the AVCA National Player of the Week award this season as Florida’s Kelly Murphy and Tennessee’s Kayla Jeter previously claimed the honor.
A starter since the day she arrived in Lexington, Rapp has been one of the best to ever wear a Kentucky uniform. She ranks fifth all-time at Kentucky with 475 career sets of action. She is eighth in school history with 1,254 career kills and second in the UK record books with 411 block assists.
Rapp and the Wildcats return to action on Friday, Nov. 19 with a road trip to Ole Miss. First serve in Oxford, Miss., is slated for 8 p.m. ET.
Follow along all season long with the Wildcats at UKathletics.com.
