Aaron Harrell (UCI) AVCA & MPSF POTW

[robonthemic]

February 19, 2007

AARON HARRELL SWEEPS PLAYER OF THE WEEK HONORS
(see original story at

Irvine, Calif. -- Middle blocker Aaron Harrell was named Sports Imports/AVCA National Player of the Week as well as Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) Player of the Week after helping UC Irvine to three wins.

This is Harrell’s first career Player of the Week honor. He joins Jayson Jablonsky (Jan. 22) as the second Anteater to garner the national distinction this season and is the third UCI player to earn the league accolade (Thornton, Jablonsky) this year.

For the Week, Harrell committed just two attacking errors, hitting .545 (20-2-33) over three matches. The junior had a match-high seven block assists versus Pacific, as the Anteaters out-blocked the Tigers 11.5-5.0. He also added six kills and two service aces in that match. Following last week’s action, Harrell moved into sixth all-time on the UCI career block assist list (267). UCI did not lose a game last week, defeating UC Santa Cruz, Stanford and No. 11 Pacific, 3-0.

Second-ranked UC Irvine (15-3, 9-3 MPSF) travels to No. 3 UC Santa Barbara Wednesday before hosting No. 10 Cal State Northridge Saturday at 7:00 p.m. in the Bren Events Center.

[fingrbustr]

Nice post, Rob. The best 6'5" middle in the nation, IMHO. Up high and early, packs a punch.

[swingaway]

Love to watch him play. Hard worker. He can hang and turn a ball as well as anyone.

Hope he has a bad Saturday (when they play CSUN )

[fingrbustr]

Hit the nail on the head, swing. He hits the cut-back beautifully. He can wrist-away at the LB equally as well. Quick end-to-end, tireless jumper. Very solid D1 middle. Speraw knows how to pick 'em.

[UCvBall]

Thats quite the dynamic duo Speraw and Irvine have in the middle, National and MPSF player of the week, 6th/11th in MPSF and NCAA hitting percentage, along with Smith, who is currently 1st and 4th in hitting percentage and 3rd/8th in blocks per game. They're great to watch and both especially harrell go big everytime in both hits and blocks, bouncing balls everytime they're set. Congrats Harrell, well deserved.

[sharp716]

If I remember correctly, Speraw had Harrell tagged as a RS OH when he came into UCI, but when the starting MB Nic Vislay got injured for the millionth time, Harrell got a chance to show his stuff. He has been a starter since (somewhere very close to the beginning of his freshman year).

It seems to me that Harrell looks like the future of MBs - relying on speed rather than height both on hittting and blocking. Especially with hitting, he gets up so early and has such good hang time that he gets a better chance than most to scope out where he wants to hit the ball.

Aside from his playing ability, he seems to be turning into that floor morale leader that UCI seems to be lacking since Spittle (OH-Captain for 2 years) left. Even when he is on the bench, I always see him yelling at the players and cheering them on at the games.

[shankapotamus]

Harrell is one athletic competitor. He's got speed, quickness and leaping ability = great combination for a MB.

UCIVball hit the nail on the head-- the Irvine MB's are stepping up their games since Irvine is not seeing the AA #s we saw from Webber & Jablonsky last year. You can see it in the set distribution and K tallies each match.

[shankapotamus]

swingaway said:

Love to watch him play. Hard worker. He can hang and turn a ball as well as anyone.

Hope he has a bad Saturday (when they play CSUN )

Swingaway, bummer about Rhodes. Great guy and great player going down w/ the ankle injury. Rhodes played well against UCI when they were up at CSUN.

[robonthemic]

Any word on Rhodes' injury for the Saturday matchup agaist Harrell and the 'Eaters?

[swingaway]

Rhodes is out as far as I know.