Sports Imports/AVCA Division III
Men's National
Player of the Week
January 22, 2008
Bryan Shires - UC Santa Cruz
Senior, Outside Hitter, 6-3
(San Diego, Calif. -
Mt. Carmel High School)
Bryan Shires, a 6-3 outside hitter for then-No. 3. UC Santa Cruz, has been
named the Sports Imports/AVCA Division III Men’s National Player of the
Week. He earned the award after leading his team to a 4-0 record at the
Wisconsin Invitational, which included wins over three nationally ranked
teams. In the Banana Slugs’ sweep of then-No. 15 Milwaukee School of
Engineering, Shires scored seven kills, five digs and a block, then followed
that up with eight kills, one ace and two digs in a 3-0 win over then-No. 11
Rivier. Against Fontbonne, Shires played in only two games in the 3-0 win
and had four kills and a dig. To cap off the week, in a huge 3-1 win over
then-No. 4 Carthage, he had his best match of the week, scoring a
double-double with 20 kills and 10 digs. Earlier in the week prior to the
tournament, he also had a seven kill, two block performance in UC Santa
Cruz's loss to Division I Stanford. For the week against Division III
opponents, Shires hit at a .417 clip and averaged 3.25 kills, 1.5 digs and
3.75 points per game, while helping his team move up to No. 2 in this week's
CSTV/AVCA Division III Men's Coaches Top 15 Poll. Shires is the third
athlete from UC Santa Cruz to earn the Sports Imports/AVCA Division III
Men's National Player of the Week award. The last Banana Slug to receive the
award was Tyler Hinz on January 16, 2007. UC Santa Cruz is coached by Jonah
Carson.