AMHERST, N.Y. -- Sam Logan (Eden, N.Y.), Vanessa Kuliga (Glenview, Ill.), Olivia Alessi (East Aurora, N.Y.) and Nahirka Malpica (Caguas, P.R.) of the Daemen University women's volleyball team have all been named East Coast Conference weekly award winners after leading the Wildcats to a perfect 3-0 record in conference play last week. The announcement was made by the ECC's weekly women's volleyball report, released this afternoon. This is the second time Daemen has swept the weekly awards, and the first time since Oct. 12, 2021, when the Wildcats became the first team to sweep all four awards since the ECC revamped its weekly awards in 2018.

Logan, a graduate student, earns her first ECC Player of the Week award this season after averaging 3.56 kills per set (totaling 32 kills) and 3.66 digs per set (33 digs total). She added four aces, four assists and two blocks. Logan played in all nine sets over the three matches against D'Youville, Queens and Molloy. The 5-foot-10 outside hitter tallied her second and third double-double (kills-digs) of the season on Thursday and Saturday, finishing with 12 kills and 12 digs against D'Youville, and 11 kills and 13 digs against Queens. She finished with a .361 hitting percentage on the weekend. Logan earned a single-game season high hitting percentage against Queens (.611), which ranks as the second-highest single game hitting percentage in her career. She is currently ranked fifth in the conference with 2.81 kills/set on the season.

This marks the second ECC weekly award in Logan's five-year career. She earned the same award on Oct. 12, 2021 when Daemen swept the weekly awards. Logan is the second Daemen player to be named ECC Player of the Week, as fellow outside hitter Maggie Burns (Louisville, Ky.) picked up the same award on Sept. 12. Through five weeks so far this season, Daemen has earned ECC weekly awards in each of the past three weeks. 

Junior middle blocker Kuliga picks up her first ECC Defensive Player of the Week nod this season, and the second of her career. She played in all three matches last weekend, tallying five total blocks, three solo and two assisted. In Saturday's match against Queens, Kuliga earned her 100th career block. She currently has 17 blocks on the season to average, 10 of them being solo blocks. Kuliga is averaging .48 blocks per set on the season. Over the weekend, Kuliga added 13 kills, a single-game career-high five aces against Queens, six digs and two assists. 

Alessi, a 5-foot-4 junior, has been named ECC Setter of the Week for the second straight week after averaging 11.33 assists per set for a total of 68 assists through two matches. She notched a season-high 39 assists against Queens on Saturday to average 13 assists per set, also a season-high. Alessi added three aces, 15 digs, and two kills through the two matches she played.

This is the fifth career Setter of the Week honor for Alessi. She currently ranks second in the ECC with 8.82 assists per set, with Wildcat teammate Dunja Masic (McHenry, Ill.) third in the conference with 8.45 assists/set.

5-foot-8 outside hitter Malpica picks up her first ECC Rookie of the Week award this season. The freshman played in all three sets against D'Youville on Thursday, nearly posting a double-double as she totaled eight kills to average 2.66 kills/set and nine digs. She added a solo block against the Saints, and was a part of Daemen's season-high 12 ace affair, as she was one of six different Wildcats to record an ace. 

Malpica is the first Daemen player to earn Rookie of the Week since Kuliga on Oct. 12, 2021. 

Daemen has won four straight matches, with all four wins being 3-0 sweeps for the Wildcats. They are 9-3 on the season, and lead the league with a perfect 3-0 record in conference play.

The Wildcats make the short trek up I-90 on Wednesday to take on Roberts Wesleyan in a midweek conference match. Tip-off is at 7 PM in Rochester. 
 

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Daemen University features the premier NCAA Division II athletics program in the Buffalo-Niagara region, sponsoring 17 intercollegiate teams. For the latest information on Daemen Athletics, follow the Wildcats via social media on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram, or sign up to receive customizable news alerts, e-mail newsletters and weekly schedule alerts.

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