On Monday, the Big Ten announced junior middle blocker Maddie Slater as the conference player of the week.

Slater played a vital role in the Wildcats’ weekend success, when they claimed two straight-set victories on the road. Slater led Northwestern with 11 kills in its triumph against Rutgers and then followed up that performance by collecting another seven kills versus Maryland.

This honor is the first weekly award Slater has earner in her career. Throughout her time in Evanston, she has shown clear improvement year-to-year and is on pace to shatter her career-highs for kills, total attacks and hitting percentage, all of which she set last season.

Over the course of this season, Slater has proven to be one of the most consistent Cats. She leads the team with a .412 hitting percentage and has gone seven straight contests with at least a .300 hitting percentage.

The 2014 Academic All-Big Ten honoree also sits fourth on the team in kills with 94 on the season. She has also been able to start every match for the team so far this season and has appeared in a team-high 43 sets.

NU will be relying on Slater to keep up this level of play and reliability this week as its next two contest are both on the road against ranked Big Ten competition.

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