PROVO, Utah — The Mountain Pacific Sports Federation named BYU freshman middle blocker AJ Cottle the conference's Defensive Player of the Week for his performance against No. 10 UC San Diego last weekend.
Cottle racked up 14 total blocks in two matches against the Tritons, including a career-high 11 blocks in Saturday’s four-set victory. He was one block away from entering BYU’s Top-10 for single-match blocks. His 1.462 blocks per set are the most in the MPSF and put him at No. 7 in the NCAA.
Offensively, Cottle also was a major contributor to BYU's success. He had 16 kills in the two matches, including a 10-for-10 effort on Saturday. Cottle became the first player in BYU rally-scoring era to hit 10 or more kills in a single match and have a perfect hitting percentage while doing so. He hit .750 overall on the weekend. His .649 hitting percentage overall would be the second-best mark in the NCAA this season, but his 2.8 attacks per set are below the 3.3 attack-per-set minimum to qualify in that category.
Cottle and the No. 8 Cougars won both matches last weekend over the Tritons to move to 4-0 this season and have two more home matches this Friday and Saturday, as UC Irvine visits the Smith Fieldhouse.