Standout performances during a pair of weekend sweeps, including school-record and nation-leading blocking night, land Charleston's Xander Bomert and Penn State's Owen Rose EIVA Player of the Week awards for Feb. 23, 2026.

OFFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Xander Bomert, So., OH, Charleston
Xander delivered a pair of solid performances to help the Eagles sweep a pair of weekend matches from Sacred Heart. The sophomore outside hitter played three sets during a 3-1 win Feb. 20, posting 12 kills on .350 hitting with four digs and a solo block. The next day he had 14 kills on .458 hitting with an assist, nine digs and two blocks, one solo. His weekend total saw 26 kills on .409 hitting with an assist, 13 digs and three blocks. He has four matches this season with nine or more kills while hitting over .450, and in seven sets played over his last three contests he had 35 kills while hitting .491. This is the fourth EIVA weekly honor of Bomert’s career and first this season.
 
DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Owen Rose, R-Sr., MB, Penn State
Owen put himself in the record books both for the No. 16 Nittany Lions and the NCAA during a sweep of two matches from Harvard. The redshirt senior middle blocker weekend closed with a 3-1 victory Feb. 21 as he recorded four kills on .273 hitting with three aces, two digs and four blocks. That followed a stunning performance Feb. 13, when he had five kills on an error-free six swings to hit .833, adding three digs and 14 blocks, four solo, in a three-set sweep. His blocking total breaks the program record for blocks in a match of any length, regardless of rally or side-out scoring. It’s the highest total in the nation this season for a three-set match and matches the 14 posted by North Greenville’s Landon Richter in a 3-2 win vs. Erskine on Feb. 13. This is the fourth time a student-athlete notched 14 blocks in a three-set match since the start of rally scoring in 2001, joining Hawaii’s Dejan Miladinovic (twice in 2001) and Ball State’s Matt Walsh (2015). His weekend total saw nine kills on .471 hitting, three aces, five digs and 18 blocks, averaging 2.57 blocks per set. Rose leads the EIVA with 67 total blocks and 1.37 blocks per set and he entered the weekend 13th in the nation in blocking. This is the fifth EIVA weekly honor of Rose’s career and his first of the season.