GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. — Olivia Reed continues to hone her defensive game, and on Monday was selected the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Defensive Player of the Week for the fourth time this season.
It's the seventh such honor in the past two years for Reed, who was the 2023-23 RMAC Freshman of the Year and a first-team All-RMAC selection.
This is the final weekly honor of the season in the RMAC, which will announce its All-Conference teams later this week. Ironically, Reed was the Defensive POW in the final week last season.
Reed, a 6-foot sophomore forward from Windsor, has been at or near the top of the conference in rebounding all season, averaging 11.3 per game, second only to CSU Pueblo's Alisha Little's 11.5 average. In the past few weeks, however, Reed has shown her ability as a shot-blocker. She rejected a career-high five shots on Saturday night against Western Colorado, all in the first half, two against the Mountaineers' 6-foot-2 forward Rachel Cockman. On Tuesday against Westminster, Reed swatted away three shots and now has 46 blocks this season.
She finished the week with a pair of double-doubles, with 14 points and 13 rebounds against Westminster and 30 points and 16 boards against Western Colorado to help the Mavs earn a share of the RMAC championship and the No. 1 seed in this week's RMAC Tournament.
Reed has 329 rebounds this season, moving into fifth place in the program's single-season record book, two behind Pam DeCosta's 331 in 1984-85. DeCosta's record of 435 was set in the 1985-86 season.
Either Reed or the ThunderWolves' Little won the weekly defensive honor in 11 of the 15 weeks, and twice this season Reed was the Division II Conference Information Directors Association's National Player of the Week (Nov. 14 and Feb. 6).
Reed and the Mavericks face Little and CSU Pueblo at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday (March 5) in the quarterfinals of the RMAC Tournament at Brownson Arena, followed by the men's quarterfinal game against Chadron State at 7:30 p.m. As the No. 1 seed in both tournaments, if the Mavericks win, they will host the semifinal and championship games on Friday (March 8) and Saturday (March 9).
