In this edition of Wolverine performers of the week, we highlight the top performers of the past week. The top performers for the week are Kazna Tanuvasa and Jules Fink, Maria Carvalho, and the men’s basketball team. Honorable mentions for this month include men’s cross country, who placed 10th at the NCAA Mountain Regional, and women’s cross country who placed 9th.
Kazna Tanuvasa and Jules Fink were both named to All-WAC teams, with Tanuvasa honored as 1st team All-WAC and Fink being named to the WAC All-Freshman team. Tanuvasa has had nothing short of a historic season, moving into the third all-time at UVU in kills. This season she tallied 348 kills, 14 assists and 21 aces while Fink tallied 137 kills. On defense, Fink recorded 31 digs, one solo block and 54 assisted blocks while Tanuvasa had 181 digs, seven solo blocks and 39 assisted blocks. Both players had remarkable seasons as the volleyball team finished the regular season at 13-12 and 8-6 in conference play. The Wolverines defeated second seeded NMSU 3-2 and will face-off against the sixth seed SFA on Friday, Nov. 18.
Maria Carvalho was also honored by the WAC, this time as the Ticketmaster WAC player of the week for women’s basketball. Carvalho received the award for her play during the week of November 8-14. Opening up the season, Carvalho matched a career high in points against Park University with 23 and put up 20 points, 10 rebounds and six steals against Fresno State. Making their first NCAA tournament appearance in history during the 2020-21 season, Carvalho and the Wolverines look to make it back to the tournament and make a deep run. The Wolverines are currently sitting at 2-1 and will face Nevada on Saturday, Nov. 20.
The men’s basketball team began the season 3-1, winning back-to-back overtime games against Pepperdine and Long Beach State. In the game against Pepperdine, Connor Harding put up a career high 18 points, none bigger than the buzzer beating three-pointer to send the game to overtime. In overtime, the Wolverines went on a 15-3 run in overtime to secure the win, 86-74. Fardaws Aimaq put up a career-high 34 points as well as 14 rebounds in the win. In the game against Long Beach State, Blaze Neild hit the game-tying shot for the Wolverines with four seconds left, sending the game to overtime. In overtime, Neild hit back-to-back three-pointers to put the game on ice as the Wolverines came out on top 84-78. Aimaq had yet another big game with 25 points and 16 rebounds and Blaze Neild tallied 19 points and three steals. The Wolverines look to build on their 3-1 record on the road at Idaho on Monday, Nov. 22.
