Sander named national player of the week

PROVO, Utah—After earning conference player of the week honors, BYU senior outside hitter Taylor Sander was named Sports Imports/AVCA Division I-II Player of the Week for helping the No. 2 Cougars clinch the top seed of the league tournament.

The award is Sander’s third national player of the week honor of his career and the 24^th for BYU (18-4, 18-2 MPSF).

Sander contributed 50 kills in the Cougars’ back-to-back top-10 victories, averaging 5.56 per set and hitting .500 on the weekend. The Huntington Beach, Calif., native had a season-high 27 kills and a career-high eight block assists in BYU’s nailbiter against No. 5 UC Santa Barbara. He turned around and threw down 23 kills on a .526 hit clip against No. 9 UCLA the next night.

With the win against UCLA, the 2014 BYU squad clinched the No. 1 seed in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation tournament the earliest in league history.

The Cougars are on the road for their last four regular-season matches, starting with two against No. 10 Hawai’i Friday and Saturday.