Oct. 22, 2012

WALNUT CREEK, Calif. - USC women's volleyball outside hitter Samantha Bricio received her fourth Pac-12 Freshman of the Week honor on Monday, Oct. 22, following strong performances in two Trojan wins against Utah and Colorado for the week of Oct. 15-22. Washington's Melanie Wade was voted Defensive Player of the Week and Stanford's Carly Wopat was chosen as the league's Offensive Player of the Week.

Bricio, a native of Guadalajara, Mexico, was unstoppable as she served up 11 aces over six sets on the weekend. In a 3-0 win over Utah, she was just one ace shy of tying the USC record with an amazing seven service aces. In addition, Bricio had six kills and one dig on the match. In the three-set sweep over Colorado, she averaged six points per set as she logged four aces to go with 12 kills for 18.0 points on the evening.

It is the fourth time that Bricio has been honored as the league's first-year player of the week. She won back-to-back awards to open the season (Aug. 27 and Sept. 3) and was selected again on Oct. 8 when she was also named the conference's Offensive Player of the Week. She went on to be named the Sports Imports/AVCA National Player of the Week on Oct. 9.

Pac-12 weekly awards have been selected every week of the season since the conference began sponsoring women's volleyball in 1986. It is the second year the Pac-12 has announced an offensive, defensive, and rookie honoree.

The seventh-ranked Trojans (19-3, 7-3 Pac-12) host No. 5 Washington (17-2, 8-2) at the Galen Center on Friday, Oct. 26, at 6 p.m. PT; a match that will be carried live on the Pac-12 Networks. USC will play on back-to-back nights for the first time since Sept. 14-15 when it hosts Washington State (10-12, 0-10) on Saturday, Oct. 27, at 7 p.m. PT. Please visit www.USCTrojans.com for more information and links to live stats.