Dede Carranza Earns SCIAC Specialist of the Week Honors for CMS Volleyball

CLAREMONT, Calif. - After a big week defensively from her libero position, Dede Carranza was named the SCIAC Volleyball Specialist of the Week for the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps volleyball team, the league office announced today.

CMS twice defeated the second-place team in the SCIAC in a span of less than 24 hours, knocking Chapman down to third place with a 3-0 win on Friday, and then knocking Pomona-Pitzer back down into a tie for second with another 3-0 win on Saturday. Carranza, who recently moved into the starting libero role following an injury to senior Makenna Fall, was a big part of those wins, tallying 44 digs total over six sets (7.33 per set). 

Against Chapman, Carranza tallied 25 digs in only three sets (8.33 per set), several of which were of the spectacular variety, keeping the ball alive with one-armed digs on three different occasions. She followed that up with 19 digs against Pomona-Pitzer, including a diving effort to set up the set-winning kill from Melanie Williams. 

CMS has now pulled in five SCIAC Athlete of the Week Awards from four different players this season. Williams (Offensive Player of the Week) and setter Georgia McGovern (Specialist of the Week) swept the two honors after opening weekend. Jackie Jones captured it on Sept. 13, after leading CMS to wins over No. 1 and No. 2 ranked teams in the country on the same day (Trinity and Emory, respectively) at the East-West Battle. Williams then earned the Offensive Player of the Week honor for the second time on Sept. 27, after hitting .658 in a 3-0 week for the Athenas. 

CMS will be back in action tomorrow, when it takes on La Verne for a 7 p.m. contest at Roberts Pavilion, looking to extend its perfect start to the 2021 season (15-0, 8-0 SCIAC).