Juniata’s Joe Bortak earns Sports Imports/AVCA and CVC Player of the Week award

HUNTINGDON, Pa. – Juniata College freshman middle blocker Joe Bortak (Jeannette, Pa./Penn Trafford) earned both Sports Imports American Volleyball Coaches Association Player of the Week and the Continental Volleyball Conference Player of the Week award, announced Tuesday.

Bortak's efforts helped the Eagles to wins over Lancaster Bible, No. 2 Springfield and Division II Grand Canyon University while never hitting under .500 in any of the matches. 

After getting five kills in the first match of the weekend, he nailed 14 kills in the following match against the Pride hitting an astounding .778.  In the upset win Bortak set personal records for kills, attempts, blocks and hitting percentage.  In the next two matches he accrued another 23 kills against No. 7 Nazareth and Grand Canyon to split the final two matches. 

For the week, Bortak averaged 3.64 points per set with a hitting percentage of .617.

This is the 20th time a Juniata men's volleyball player has been named a Sports Imports/AVCA Player of the Week, with the most recent coming the week of January 18, 2011 when Chris Vrooman won the award.

Juniata returns to the court this Wednesday, Feb. 29 when they open Continental Volleyball Conference play at home against Thiel College. The CVC action will continue this weekend on Friday, Feb. 24, and Saturday, Feb. 25, when the Eagles travel to Stevenson, Md. to play Philadelphia Biblical, Eastern Mennonite and Stevenson.

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