Reilly Parker Earns ECAC DIII South Region Rookie of the Week Honors
Nov. 5 – DANBURY, Conn. – After helping the Bethany College volleyball team wrap up a 27-win regular season, including victories over Geneva College and Case Western Reserve University last week, freshman Reilly Parker (Irwin, Pa./Norwin) has been named the Corvias Eastern College Athletic Conference Division III South Regional Rookie of the Week, announced the ECAC on Thursday.
Parker helped the Green & White to matching 3-1 victories over top competition in the last week of the regular season. She posted 58 total digs on the week, while also adding a service ace. Working on the back row, the freshman defensive specialist aided the Bison in holding their opponents to a .121 hitting percentage.
Parker and the Bison first wrapped up their Presidents' Athletic Conference regular season schedule with a win over Geneva College, securing the third seed in the PAC Championship Tournament. In the match, the Bison held the Golden Tornadoes to a .028 hitting percentage, marking the 14th time this season that the Green & White had held an opponent under .100. Individually, Parker led the defensive effort, tallying a game-high 26 digs.
In their regular-season finale against Case Western Reserve, the Bison once again played well, defeating the regionally-ranked Spartans by a 3-1 advantage. Parker was once again brilliant on the back row, posting a career-high 32 digs, helping the Bison to a season-best 116.
Parker, who finished the season with a double-digit dig performance in every match, completed the year with 640 total digs, good for 11th in all of Division III. She posted at least 20 digs on 16 separate occasions, while also going over the 30-dig plateau three times.
Offensively, Parker has also been one of the best servers in the conference, finishing the 2015 regular season as the PAC leader in total service aces (59). She also tied for first on the conference leaderboard in aces per set (.52).
Parker and the Bison will look to capture the program's first PAC Tournament Championship as they travel to Crestview Hills, Kentucky to open play in the PAC semifinals. The Green & White will take on second-seeded Geneva at 8 p.m., with the winner taking on the victor of Thomas More and Westminster in the Championship final on Saturday, Nov. 7 at 4 p.m.
