COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.— Colorado Mesa University freshman Molly Whalen was named as the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference's Offensive Player of the Week, the conference announced on Monday afternoon.
 
The 5-foot-9 outside hitter from Litchfield Park, Arizona recorded 28 kills and hit a combined .339 in the Mavs' 4-set road wins over Colorado Christian and CSU Pueblo.
 
Whalen recorded 13 kills and hit .357 in Friday's win over Colorado Christian and then recorded 15 kills on .324 hitting against CSU Pueblo.  She also added eight digs and a block over the weekend.
 
Whalen has now recorded double-figure kill totals in five straight matches during CMU's current 6-match winning streak, while raising her season-long attack percentage to .313, which ranks her eighth in the conference.
 
The Canyon View High School graduate is the second Maverick outside hitter in as many weeks to receive the RMAC honor after junior counterpart Ashlee Macias won last week's plaudit.
 
The Mavericks are now 15-3 overall and tied for the lead in the conference standings with a 7-1 record.
 
They will wrap up a 3-match stretch on the road with a Tuesday night encounter in Salt Lake City, Utah against Westminster (3-15, 2-6 RMAC)  The Mavs will then return home to host the Colorado School of Mines, which is currently 15-3 overall and a match out of the 3-way tie for first place in the conference standings, with a 6-2 conference slate.
 
Saturday's home match will begin at 5 p.m. in Brownson Arena.
 
Tuesday's road match at Westminster is slated for a 6 p.m. start in the Griffins' Behnken Field House.
 
In other news, the Mavericks are now receiving a season-high 46 points in this week's AVCA-Taraflex Division II Poll, but still just outside the poll's top 25 as the highest ranked squad in the "others receiving votes" category of the poll, which was also released on Monday afternoon. 
 
Mines is also in that category with 25 points.
 
Two other RMAC squads in UCCS (9) and MSU Denver (7) are also picking up votes.