ROCK HILL, S.C. — Tusculum University women’s volleyball freshman Gracie Hibdon has earned Offensive Player of the Week honors, announced by the South Atlantic Conference office in conjunction with WePlayed Sports on Monday (Oct. 12).
This is Tusculum’s second honoree of the season and the first of Hibdon’s career.
Hibdon, a freshman from Gallatin, Tennessee, averaged 11.60 assists and 2.80 digs per set in leading the Pioneers to a pair of five-set home victories over Carson-Newman and Lincoln Memorial.
She posted 54 assists and 20 digs in TU’s 3-2 win over Carson-Newman, snapping a five-match losing streak to the Eagles. She followed with a career-best 62 assists as TU rallied from a 2-0 deficit to pull the reverse sweep over Lincoln Memorial. Hibdon’s 62 assists are tied for the seven-most in a five-set match in program history. Against LMU, she led the TU offense to the sixth-most kills in a five-setter (73) and fifth-most assists ever (70).
She is averaging 7.42 assists and 2.99 digs per set this season, for totals of 534 and 215, respectively. Hibdon is also fifth nationally in triple doubles (1) and is the only player in the SAC to record that feat this year.
This marks the first season that Tusculum has defeated Wingate, Lenoir-Rhyne, and Carson-Newman in a single campaign since 2023, the Pioneers’ SAC Championship run. TU has also collected the season sweep of LMU for the first time in three years.
The Pioneers (12-5, 9-4 SAC) are on a seven-match winning streak. TU has just one match this week, a road contest at Catawba on Friday (Oct. 16) at 7 p.m. The Catawba Indians took the first round in Pioneer Arena back in September.
