Krystal Rivers Named SEC Player of the Week

Senior Krystal Rivers is this week’s SEC Offensive Player of the Week following stellar performances over last week’s four matches.

Rivers led the team in kills in all four of week two’s matches, finishing with 89 and an average of 5.24 per set. Her highest total came against 16th-ranked Florida State, posting 29 over the five sets with just eight errors on 50 swings, good for a .420 hitting percentage. The 29 kills and four aces in the match against the Seminoles are both just one shy of her career bests. She also posted two double-doubles, first in Thursday’s win over Virginia Tech with 22 kills and 14 digs and then against Temple on Saturday with 24 kills and 13 digs.

Rivers has led the team in kills every match this season and has an SEC-leading 154 kills, 45 more than the second-highest total in the league. The 89 kills this week propelled her to fourth all-time at Alabama in career kills with 1,597, putting her 17 shy of third place.

The weekly honor is the first of the season for Rivers and Alabama and the fourth of her career. All three previous weekly honors came in 2014, when Rivers was named AVCA Third Team All-American.

Next up, Rivers and the Crimson Tide prepare to host the first of two home tournaments, the Hampton Inn Bama Bash on Sept. 9-10 in Foster Auditorium. Action begins on Friday, Sept. 9 at 10 a.m. CT against Northwestern State and continues later that night against Southern Miss at 7 p.m. CT and the next day against Lehigh at 11 a.m. CT.