Sandman Player of the Month: Bereziuk earns November-December honours

Sandman Player of the Month: Bereziuk earns November-December honours

MacEwan Athletics

EDMONTON – After her outstanding performance across the board, women's volleyball student-athlete Mariah Bereziuk has been named the Griffins' Sandman Player of the Month for November-December.

Bereziuk wins a free night's stay at the Sandman Signature Hotel Downtown Edmonton.

The third-year outside hitter led the Griffins in kills in all eight of the team's matches over the November-December window, finishing with 97 of them over that time on an overall .190 attack efficiency.

Bereziuk also added 59 digs, 11 blocks, an assist, an ace and accounted for 106.0 points over the November-December window as she led the Griffins to their first two wins of the season (both over Brandon Nov. 25-26).

"Mariah just does a really good job of handling her team, as well," said interim head coach Dusty Freimark after the Griffins' sweep over Brandon. "Never does she think it's about her in any way. She just wants to contribute; she wants to do what she's good at."

Her 21 kills against the Bobcats on Nov. 25 tied her for the ninth-best single game mark in the program's Canada West history.

"Mariah's an incredible athlete," Freimark said that night. "I think she just needed maybe her coaches, maybe her teammates to allow her to do what she does best. I think she just decided to do what she does best."

For the season, Bereziuk has 141 kills (10th in U SPORTS and seventh in Canada West and is averaging 3.52 kills/set (16th in U SPORTS and seventh in Canada West).

Bereziuk and the Griffins are on semester break before returning to action at Manitoba on Jan. 6-7.