Women's Volleyball: Pollard, Collins named to GNAC WVB weekly honors

(Winthrop, Mass.) The Great Northeast Athletic Conference announced earlier this afternoon that Rivier University's Courtney Collins (Litchfield, N.H.) and Avery Pollard (Ballston Lake, N.Y.) have been selected as the conference's Player and Rookie of the Week for Women's Volleyball.

Collins led Rivier to a perfect 4-0 week, including two GNAC wins to clinch the overall #2 seed in the upcoming conference tournament. She averaged 3.33 kills per set with a .314 hitting percentage on offense while averaging 1.50 blocks per set on the defensive side of the net. Collins highlighted her week with a 15-kill, 7-total block performance in the team's 3-1 win against her undergrad alma mater Keene State. She appeared in 70 total matches from 2014-16 with the Owls.

Pollard did it all for the Raiders in an unbeaten week. The rookie averaged 1.91 kills (.214 hitting percentage), 1.64 assists, 0.73 aces, 4.09 digs and 0.82 blocks per set. She recorded 10 kills, seven assists, 14 digs, five service aces and four blocks in a 3-1 win over Emerson. Pollard then held down the defensive specialist position by scooping up 24 digs in the win over Keene State. Finally, she played two sets as a hitter opposite and a third set as the primary setter to record 7 kills, 7 assists, 7 digs and 3 blocks in the team's 3-0 GNAC win over Saint Joseph's College.

Collins becomes the third different Rivier Women's Volleyball student-athlete to be named the GNAC Player of the Week. Senior Hayley Macken (Clifton Park, N.Y.) and junior Taylor Dunster (Sutton, Mass.) were honored on September 10th and October 1st, respectively. Pollard joins classmate Sydney Racevicius (Woodbury, Conn.) as Rivier Women's Volleyball student-athletes to be named the GNAC Rookie of the Week in 2018.

Collins, Pollard and the rest of the Women's Volleyball team will be back in action on Wednesday night as they host Salem State University. First serve is scheduled for 7pm inside the Muldoon Gymansium.