Maine's Shannan Fotter (Riverside, Calif./Lakenheath (England)) has been named America East Player of the Week, while Emmy Blouin (St. Albert, Alberta/Paul Kane Regional) of New Hampshire and UMBC's Megan Gross (Montclair, Va./Forest Park) earn Rookie of the Week and Setter of the Week accolades respectively. The awards were announced on Monday (November 15).
Fotter paced the Black Bear attack in two conference victories last week, helping secure the No. 3 seed in the America East Championship. In two matches, she recorded 35 kills (3.50 per game) and had a .468 hitting percentage. Fotter also totaled 10 blocks, bringing her season tally to 99, establishing a new program single-season record. In a 3-2 win over Albany, she had 16 kills and added four blocks to help the Black Bears hand Albany their first league loss of the season and also snap an 18-match winning streak. In a 3-2 regular season finale victory against Binghamton, she led all players with 19 kills while hitting .485. Against the Bearcats, she added six blocks. For the season, she leads the team with a .346 hitting percentage and a 1.03 blocks per game average.
Blouin recorded 29 kills in the last week of the regular season and averaged 4.14 kills per game. Blouin also notched a team-high .328 hitting percentage last week. She posted 10+ kills on 11 occasions in her first season.
Gross moved into second place on the Retrievers all-time career charts this past week with an impressive 86 assists in two matches, averaging 12.29 per game. She handed out 53 assists against Northeastern and garnered a double-double with 14 digs. Gross recorded 33 assists the next night against Hartford with eight digs and eight kills. For the week she averaged 3.14 digs per game with 22 and 1.29 kills per game as the junior setter recorded nine kills. For the season, she dished out 1,119 assists for a 10.17 per game average and recorded 327 digs, a 2.97 digs per game average. For her career she has 3,102 career assists, second on UMBC’s all-time career assists chart.