Beavin and Whitworth Win SEC Awards Monday Afternoon

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Sophomore libero Eleanor Beavin and freshman defensive specialist Audrey Whitworth were both honored by the Southeastern Conference on Monday with Beavin being named the SEC Defensive Player of the Week and Whitworth taking home SEC Freshman of the Week honors.

For Beavin, it is her second SEC honor of the season, being named the SEC DOW on Sept. 5. This marks the first SEC honor for Whitworth as a Kentucky Wildcat.

Beavin recorded a new career-high 21 kills in the match Wednesday night as Kentucky beat Ole Miss to improve to 6-1 in the SEC for the season. Beavin got to 21 kills, marking the first time this season she’s eclipsed that threshold and just the third time in her career. Beavin now has double-digit digs in all matches this season but one and 17+ digs in four of the last five matches. Her assist marked the sixth-straight match for Beavin with an assist.

Whitworth recorded 13 digs, one off of her career high, and notched her first-career kill Wednesday night in a 3-1 win over Ole Miss. Whitworth also point-scored from the service line with two aces, tying her career-high number set last weekend vs. Arkansas. Whitworth now has 10+ digs in back-to-back matches for the first time in her career as a Wildcat and in two of the last three matches has 2+ aces after only recording one in the first 11 matches she appeared in prior to conference play.

Kentucky will play at Texas A&M on Saturday and Sunday this week with both matches of the two-match series beginning at 3 p.m. ET. Saturday’s match will be on SEC Network+ with Sunday’s match airing on ESPNU.

Follow along with the Wildcats on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, and on the web at UKathletics.com.