Off the Block unveils National Position Player of Week Awards

Five college men’s volleyball players have earned national awards for being the best at their position.

Off the Block announced Monday afternoon that Charleston’s Darrin Depellegrini, Long Beach State’s Kyle Ensing and Josh Tuaniga, Loyola’s Paul Narup and BYU’s Brenden Sander were selected for the Off the Block National Position Player of the Week Awards.

The National Position Player of the Week Awards recognize the libero, middle attacker, opposite, outside attacker and setter who had the best performances in NCAA Division I-II men’s volleyball during the week.

The Off the Block staff determines each award recipient. In addition, the winners are announced every Monday during the regular season on the Off the Block website, offtheblockblog.com.

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While there are other weekly national awards in college men’s volleyball, these are the only position-based weekly awards. Off the Block at the end of the season also presents the Lloy Ball Award to the nation’s top setter, Bryan Ivie Award to the nation’s top opposite, the Karch Kiraly Award to the nation’s top outside attacker, the Ryan Millar Award to the nation’s top middle attacker and the Erik Shoji Award to the nation’s top libero.

Off the Block is a national award winning website that launched in 2011 and is the nation’s leader in college men’s volleyball coverage.

National Position Player of the Week Awards

National Setter of the Week: Josh Tuaniga, Long Beach State
National Opposite of the Week: Kyle Ensing, Long Beach State
National Outside Attacker of the Week: Brenden Sander, BYU
National Middle Attacker of the Week: Paul Narup, Loyola
National Libero of the Week: Darrin Depellegrini, Charleston

National Setter of the Week: Josh Tuaniga, Long Beach State
Tuaniga had a match-high 42 assists and guided the offense to a season-high .577 attack percentage as No. 1/1 Long Beach State swept George Mason on Saturday to extend the nation’s longest winning streak to 12 matches. The All-American also led all players with seven digs and helped Long Beach State hit .431 in a sweep against Harvard on Thursday.

National Opposite of the Week: Kyle Ensing, Long Beach State
Ensing finished with both a match-high 12 kills on a .400 attack percentage and three blocks in a non-conference road sweep against George Mason on Saturday. He also led all players with five blocks and contributed six kills while hitting .312 as No. 1/1 Long Beach State swept Harvard on Thursday to open its two-match East Coast road trip.

National Outside Attacker of the Week: Brenden Sander, BYU
Sander led all players with both a season-high 23 kills on a .372 attack percentage and five aces in a four-game conference victory against No. 14 USC on Saturday. The All-American also had 15 kills while hitting .419 and added a season-high 11 digs in a four-game non-conference win versus UC San Diego on Thursday.

National Middle Attacker of the Week: Paul Narup, Loyola
Narup had a match-high 10 blocks and added seven kills while hitting .500 as No. 6/6 Loyola beat Quincy in five games on Friday. In addition, Narup had a six kills on a .357 attack percentage and a team-high four blocks in a sweep against Lindenwood on Saturday.

National Libero of the Week: Darrin Depellegrini, Charleston
Depellegrini led Charleston with a combined 24 digs in a two-match series sweep against Princeton during the weekend. The libero in the series opener led Charleston with a season-high 16 digs as the Golden Eagles beat the Tigers in five games for their first EIVA victory in program history.