UC Santa Barbara men’s volleyball player Cullen Irons (Hanfield, CA) has been named the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) Player of the Week it was announced Monday.
The junior outside hitter tied a career-high, hitting .375 (22-7-40) as the No. 10 Gauchos shocked No. 2 Stanford in four sets on the first leg of the team’s road trip last Thursday. The next night, he broke that career-mark, firing at a .429 (15-3-28) clip, in UCSB’s sweep of Pacific at Alex G. Spanos Center.
The six-foot-eight Irons hit .397 and averaged over five kills four digs, three digs, and twenty points per match.
“We’ve just been playing with fire all the way around,” Irons said, “If we can keep doing that then there will be many more of us with these kinds of rewards.”
For a video interview with Irons, click here.
Irons has been at the forefront of the Gauchos first three-match win streak since 2008, having bested his career mark in hitting percentage in each of the contests. A week before his performance against the Cardinal, Irons hit an identical .375 (22-7-40) in the Gauchos’ four-set upset of defending national champion No. 2 UC Irvine on the road.
The last time a Gaucho took home MPSF Player of the Week Honors was February 2008, when Theo Brunner took home the honor on successive weeks, February 4th and 11th. Curiously enough, Brunner was at the helm of the aforementioned win streak during that time span.
Irons, an active member of the UCSB Student Athlete Advisory Board (SAAB), helped the Gauchos move up a spot in the AVCA DI-II Coaches Poll released Monday.
Irons shares this week’s MPSF honors with Pepperdine opposite Maurice Torres. The co-Players of the Week will face off on Wednesday (2/3) when the Gauchos host the No. 10 Waves in Rob Gym.
