Stewart Garners MPSF Weekly Honors

PROVO -- Junior outside hitter Andrew Stewart has been named the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Molten Player of the Week after his performances against then-No. 2 Pepperdine last weekend. Stewart shares the weekly honor with Hawaii’s Joseph Strotman.

This marks the first career Player of the Week honor for Stewart and the second for BYU this season (Futi Tavana, March 23).

Stewart was one of four Cougars to record double-digit kills in BYU’s 3-1 loss to No. 2 Pepperdine on Friday, contributing 18. After BYU lost the first set and tied it up 28-28 in the second, Stewart’s 11th kill of the night brought up set-point for the Cougars, which they clinched after another Wave error.

The junior team captain racked up another 18 kills on Saturday as BYU claimed a 3-1 road win over Pepperdine for a series split. The win marked the first for the Cougars at Pepperdine since the 2003 season. After BYU suffered three consecutive miscues from the service line, Stewart knocked down back-to-back kills, followed by an attack from Kent Tuttle to give BYU a 12-6 advantage. The Waves fought and came back to tie the score 16-16, and again eight more times before Stewart’s two kills and service ace secured the 30-27 win.

Stewart's totals for the two-match series were 36 kills (4.50 K/S) at a .446 hitting attack, and seven blocks, as he averaged 5.06 points per set.

He and the Cougars take this week to prepare for the quarterfinals of the MPSF Tournament. As a sixth seed, BYU is slated to play at third-seeded CSUN on Saturday at 7 p.m. PT.