ST. LOUIS – Thanks to the top performance of her career, University of Evansville senior Katie Klages was named the Missouri Valley Conference Defensive Player of the Week by the league on Monday afternoon.
 
In one of the top two-match efforts of her career, Evansville senior Katie Klages posted 53 digs over the Purple Aces road trip to Bradley and Loyola over the weekend. Klages set her career mark with 35 digs in a 5-set win over the Braves where she also tied her season high with 5 assists to go along with her 9th service ace of the season.   She followed that up by digging up 18 balls in just three sets at Loyola.
 
For her career, Klages has 2,090 digs, just five shy of breaking the all-time record of 2,095, which was set by Julie Walroth, who played for the Aces from 2004 through 2007.
 
Klages will look to break that mark when the team returns home for match against Wichita State at the Carson Center at 7 p.m. on Friday evening.