Matador Student-Athletes of the Week - Feb. 8

Each week during the 2022-23 season, GoMatadors.com selects two Matadors as Student-Athletes of the Week. This week, we highlight Yuliia Zhytelna of the Women's Tennis team and Men's Volleyball's Griffin Walters for their individual performances on the court. 
 

Yuliia Zhytelna, Women's Tennis

CSUN's Yuliia Zhytelna was named Big West Women's Tennis Player of the Week, the conference announced on Feb. 8.
 
Zhytelna won her third consecutive singles match (3-1 overall) on Feb. 4 when she defeated Santa Clara's Finley Kalinic 6-0, 6-2. Zhytelna has lost four games during her singles winning streak. Zhytelna and her doubles partner Sasha Turchak were leading Kalinic and Velizara Fileva 3-1 at No. 2 doubles before the dual ended due to rain. Zhytelna and Turchak are 2-1 in doubles play this season. The Matadors improved to 3-1 on the year with a 4-2 defeat of the Broncos. Zhytelna is the first CSUN player to earn Big West Player of the Week honors since Jolene Coetzee was awarded the prize on Mar. 17, 2021.

Griffin Walters, Men's Volleyball

Junior Griffin Walters was honored as Big West Player of the Week when the conference announced its weekly awards on Monday, Feb. 6.

Walters, who missed Wednesday's match against Vanguard due to injury, came back to lead the Matadors to a five-set upset win over No. 6 Stanford on Friday (Feb. 3). Walters matched his career-high with 17 kills on a career-high 40 swings to hit .300. The junior from Sacramento also chipped in eight digs, two aces and a pair of blocks. He currently ranks second on the Matadors averaging 2.84 kills per set and is hitting a career-best .275 on 207 attacks. He also leads CSUN with 16 aces which ranks fifth in the Big West. The award marks the first Big West Player of the Week honor for CSUN this season and first since Kyle Hobus was named Offensive and Defensive Player of the Week on Feb. 28, 2022.

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