By the Pac-12 Conference

WALNUT CREEK, Calif. - The Pac-12 Conference office announced today the Pac-12 Volleyball Players of the Week for the week of Nov. 19-25. OREGON’s Katherine Fischer was named the Conference’s Offensive Player of the Week, ASU’s Stephanie Preach was voted the Defensive Player of the Week and Stanford’s Jordan Burgess was tabbed the league’s Freshman of the Week.

Oregon senior Katherine Fischer (Los Altos, Calif.) had a career high night in her final regular season match for the Ducks. Fischer tallied a .652 hitting percentage against the Beavers, improving from her previous career best set in 2010. She recorded a season-best 15 kills in the three-set match. She also totaled six kills and two blocks in the 3-0 sweep over Oregon State. Fischer was active in the 3-0 sweep over No. 7 UCLA, earning a .154 hitting percentage, seven digs and nine kills. With the win over the Beavers, Oregon clinched a best-ever second-place finish in the Pac-12.

ASU libero Stephanie Preach (Phoenix, Ariz.) tallied 46 digs on the weekend, leading the Sun Devils to a 2-0 weekend in wins over Arizona and No. 5 Washington. She averaged 5.75 digs per set on the weekend. Her performance this weekend totaled her season digs to 598, just 12 digs shy of her career-best set in 2011. In the match against UW, Preach was just one dig shy of her match high of a 30-dig set against USC earlier this season. With the two wins on the weekend ASU earned its first 20-win season since 1993.

Cardinal outside hitter Jordan Burgess (Fort Myers, Fla.) guided Stanford to wins over Colorado and California this week to finish the season with a 27-3 overall record and a 19-1 mark in the Pac-12. Burgess averaged 2.57 kills, 2.71 digs and 3.29 points per set with a .283 hitting percentage in the two matches. The freshman tallied 10 kills with a .333 hitting percentage and was just one dig short of a double-double. Against the Golden Bears, Burgess totaled eight kills, 10 digs and two aces.

Weekly awards have been selected every week of the season since the Conference began sponsoring women’s volleyball in 1986. It is the second year the Pac-12 has announced an offensive, defensive and rookie honoree.

Seven Pac-12 teams were selected for the 2012 Division I NCAA Women’s Volleyball Championship, including five teams earning a top-16 seed. The Cardinal earned the No. 2 seed and will host Jackson State in the first round on Friday. The winner will face the winner of the Western Kentucky- Loyola Marymount matchup on Saturday. The Ducks grabbed the No. 5 seed and will play host to Northern Colorado, as well as the Pepperdine vs. Dayton match on Friday. The winners of these two matches will battle on Saturday. Arizona State is making its first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2006 after finishing the season with a 20-13 record. ASU travels to Provo, Utah to take on Oklahoma on Friday with the winner facing the winner of No. 12-seed BYU and New Mexico State the following day.

Also Nominated:
OFFENSIVE: Halli Amaro, ARIZ; Erica Wilson, ASU; Alexis Austin, COLO; Alexis Olgard, USC; Chelsey Schofield, UTAH; Kylin Muñoz, WASH.

DEFENSIVE: Ronni Lewis, ARIZ; Chelsey Keoho, COLO; Haley Jacob, ORE; Kyle Gilbert, STAN; Natalie Hagglund, USC; Erin Redd, UTAH; Jenna Orlandini, WASH.

FRESHMAN: Halli Amaro, ARIZ; Macey Gardner, ASU; Lara Vukasovic, CAL; Nicole Edelman, COLO; Canace Finley, ORE; Samantha Bricio, USC; Melanie Wade, WASH.