Cougars sweep MPSF weekly awards for third time

WOODLAND, Calif. – BYU men’s volleyball opposite hitter Gabi Garcia Fernandez received MPSF Offensive Player of the Week and middle blocker Miki Jauhiainen collected MPSF Defensive Player of the Week, the conference announced Monday.

The Cougars have now swept the weekly honors three times and have secured 10 of the 20 weekly awards given so far this season. Garcia Fernandez has now received offensive recognition three times this season while Jauhiainen picked up his second defensive honor in three weeks.

Garcia Fernandez averaged six points per set to help BYU split two matches against then-No. 1 Hawai’i. He averaged 1.375 aces per set to contribute 11 aces across the two matches and break the program’s single-season aces record with 56 total aces on the year.

The junior matched his career-high of eight aces while leading the team with 13 kills on a .688 clip to lead the Cougars over the Rainbow Warriors in straight sets. His eight aces tie for the second-most by a BYU player in a single match and mark the second time this season he has reached that total. The following night, he recorded a team-high 21 kills and stuffed the stat sheet with eight digs, five blocks and three aces in a five-set loss to UH.

Jauhiainen averaged 1.625 blocks per set and led the team in blocks both matches to help the Cougars out-block the Rainbow Warriors on consecutive nights. The senior totaled four blocks, including one solo block, before matching his career-high of nine blocks the following night.

BYU won its first six matches in MPSF play and will look to remain atop the league standings against No. 14 Stanford on Friday, March 13, at 6 p.m. PDT at Maples Pavilion in Stanford, California. The match will be streamed on the Stanford live stream hosted on Pac-12.com.