BIRMINGHAM, Ala. --- Mississippi College's Lydia Paulette and Julia Sumrall received recognition this week from the Gulf South Conference office as the duo grabbed conference offensive player of the week and defensive player of the week, as announced on Tuesday, Sept. 10.
 
This marks the seventh offensive player of the week award for Paulette and the second for Sumrall in their four-year careers.
 
Sumrall paced the Gulf South Conference in total blocks over the four-match weekend with 21. Her five solo blocks ranked second in the league, while her 16 block assists topped the league. She notched a team-best nine blocks against McKendree in the first match on Saturday, which was one off her career-high and the most in single match by any GSC performer this weekend. Her weekend totals lifted her up the career record book at MC. She catapulted into the top five in solo blocks (55) and moved to seventh and eighth in total blocks (189) and block assists (134) respectively.
 
Paulette paced the GSC with 63 kills and averaged 4.2 kills per set, which was second in the league. She also led the league in points with 75.0. The weekend performance moved within two kills of reaching the 1,000 milestone and narrowed the gap between her second-place spot and the program's leader, Kendall Platt, with 1,259 kills. She was the only player in the conference to register two single-match totals among the top 10 performers in the conference (20 at Ouachita - 2nd in the league; 19 vs. Southeastern Oklahoma - 3rd in the league).
 
The Blue and Gold went 2-2 over the weekend with wins over Southeastern Oklahoma and Ouachita Baptist before closing out the tournament with setbacks to McKendree and Henderson State.
 
Mississippi College returns to action on Friday, Sept. 20 as it travels to Montevallo, Ala., for the Peach Belt Conference-Gulf South Conference Crossover. The Choctaw are set to face the University of South Carolina at Aiken in the opening contest. First serve is at 10 a.m.