Rock Hill, S.C.----Wingate University All-American middle blocker Sydney Morland has been named the WePlayed Sports South Atlantic Conference volleyball Player of the Week, league officials announced Monday afternoon. Morland earns Player of the Week accolades for the first time this year and second time in her career.

Morland led the #20 Bulldogs to a pair of wins to begin SAC play, prevailing 3-0 at Catawba Tuesday night before rolling to a 3-0 victory over Tusculum Friday night in Cuddy Arena. The 'Dogs moved to 9-1 on the year, with eight of those victories coming via sweep.

Morland piled up 28 kills in her seven sets of action, with just three errors to post a .463 hitting percentage, needing just 54 swings to do her damage while adding nine blocks. The reigning SAC and Region Player of the Year notched 16 kills and seven blocks in the win at Catawba. She registered 12 kills without an error in 20 swings against Tusculum, hitting .600 while adding two more blocks.

After setting the single-season SAC record and ranking the top five nationally in hitting percentage last year, Morland leads the league and ranks 10^th nationally with her .434 hitting percentage this year. She ranks third in the SAC with 3.37 kills per set and fifth with 0.90 blocks per set. An AVCA second team All-American last year, Morland is the active career leader in all of NCAA Division II volleyball with her career .398 hitting percentage.

Wingate is back in action Tuesday, hosting Coker at 7 p.m. The 'Dogs travel to Carson-Newman Friday for a 7 p.m. start.