A day after earning her third career Big West Player of the Week accolade, UC Irvine's Kari Pestolesi (Huntington Beach, Calif./Edison HS) became this season's first recipient of the AVCA National Player of the Week award. This is the first time an athlete from UC Irvine has received the Sports Imports/AVCA Division I National Player of the Week award.

The junior, outside hitter guided the UC Irvine Anteaters to a perfect 3-0 record at the Courtyard Marriott/Fairfield Invitational last weekend, which included an upset victory over No. 6 California. UC Irvine opened the tournament with its first-ever win over a top 10 team and followed that up with wins over UConn and Nevada. During the match versus the Golden Bears, Pestolesi put away 17 kills against and picked up 10 digs for her 40th career double-double. She also totaled four block assists while adding a service ace. The outside hitter then totaled 23 kills, one shy of tying her career high, in a five-set win against the Huskies and also added 18 digs. She led all players with 21 digs against Nevada while recording 16 kills, hitting .308 (16-4-39). For her effort, Pestolesi was named the tournament’s most valuable player.