Jensen Named Big 12 Volleyball Player of the Week
Oct 28, 2002 | Volleyball
Oct. 28, 2002
Dallas, Texas - Junior outside hitter Cari Jensen was named the Big 12 Conference Volleyball Player of the Week by the league office on Monday afternoon after she averaged 5.67 kills per game on .362 hitting in helping Kansas State to three-game victories over No. 19 Missouri and Colorado this past week.
Jensen is the first Kansas State player to receive the honor this season, while it marks the third time she been selected for the accolade during her career. She won the weekly honor outright on Nov. 5, 2001, after tying for it on Oct. 30, 2000. Jensen is now tied with Dawn Cady (1996-99) for the most league player of the week awards in school history. Overall, she becomes the 13th Wildcat player to garner the prize in the conference's five-year existence, including the first player to earn it as a freshman, sophomore and now as a junior.
A native of Fowler, Colo., Jensen averaged 5.67 kills per game on .362 hitting with a 1.83 digs per game and 0.17 blocks per game. Jensen, who has raised her season hitting percentage 36 points since Oct. 15, has compiled a hitting percentage over .300 in each of the last four matches. She has collected double-digit kills in 16 of the Wildcats' 19 matches, including a string of 10 straight matches with at least 10 kills dating back to the Baylor match on Sept. 21.
Jensen played perhaps her best match of the season in the three-game upset of No. 19 Missouri last Wednesday, as she totaled her second double-double of the season with a season-high 20 kills on a .400 hitting percentage with 10 digs. She surpassed her previous season-high of 17 kills set against Kansas a week before and totaled 20 kills for the first time since posting a career-high 24 kills in the Wildcats' 3-1 win over No. 15 Pepperdine in the second round of the 2000 NCAA Tournament. In the pivotal third game, which set the stage for school records for most points in a three-game match (100) and most points scored in one game (39), Jensen was at her best, posting 12 of her 20 kills in the game on .455 hitting. She totaled nearly half of the team's total of 26 in the game. '
On Saturday, Jensen helped Kansas State sweep the season series from Colorado for just the third time in series history and for the first time since 2000, as she totaled 14 kills on .310 hitting with one dig and one block. The win extended the Wildcats' school-record road conference winning streak to nine matches, which dates back to a 3-0 win over Kansas on Oct. 31, 2001. K-State has now won four of the last five meetings in Boulder and hold more wins on the road (six) than at home (five) in the series.
Jensen currently leads the team in kills (235) and kills per game (3.62), while she ranks a close second in points (271.0) and service aces per game (0.29). She ranks in the top 10 in three categories in Big 12-only matches, ranking fourth in kills per game (4.00) and ninth in both aces per game (0.33) and points per game (4.51).
Kansas State (13-6, 9-2 Big 12) took over sole possession of second place in the Big 12 standings with the two wins last week, as the Wildcats ran their season-best winning streak to seven matches with back-to-back three-game sweeps of the Tigers and Buffaloes. The winning streak is the longest by the Wildcats since the team rattled off eight straight wins from Oct. 31 to Nov. 30, 2001. During the seven-match winning streak, the team has lost just three games, including a current streak of 13 consecutive game victories. At 9-2 in Big 12 play, the Wildcats are off to their best start in league play since the 1999 team went 10-1.
Kansas State will put both its overall and conference road winning streaks on the line on Wednesday, as the Wildcats travel to Lubbock, Texas to face Texas Tech (8-11, 3-7 Big 12) at the United Spirit Arena beginning at 7 p.m. K-State started its current winning streak with a 3-2 victory over the Red Raiders on Oct. 2 in Manhattan, but has just a 1-5 mark in Lubbock all-time, including four straight losses since 1998. The last win on the road came on Halloween night in 1997 in a 5-15, 15-5, 15-7, 16-14 win.
