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Bryan Shires, a 6-3 outside hitter for then-No. 3. UC Santa Cruz, has been named the Sports Imports/AVCA Division III Men’s National Player of the Week. He earned the award after leading his team to a 4-0 record at the Wisconsin Invitational, which included wins over three nationally ranked teams. In the Banana Slugs’ sweep of then-No. 15 Milwaukee School of Engineering, Shires scored seven kills, five digs and a block, then followed that up with eight kills, one ace and two digs in a 3-0 win over then-No. 11 Rivier. Against Fontbonne, Shires played in only two games in the 3-0 win and had four kills and a dig. To cap off the week, in a huge 3-1 win over then-No. 4 Carthage, he had his best match of the week, scoring a double-double with 20 kills and 10 digs. Earlier in the week prior to the tournament, he also had a seven kill, two block performance in UC Santa Cruz's loss to Division I Stanford. For the week against Division III opponents, Shires hit at a .417 clip and averaged 3.25 kills, 1.5 digs and 3.75 points per game, while helping his team move up to No. 2 in this week's CSTV/AVCA Division III Men's Coaches Top 15 Poll. Shires is the third athlete from UC Santa Cruz to earn the Sports Imports/AVCA Division III Men's National Player of the Week award. The last Banana Slug to receive the award was Tyler Hinz on January 16, 2007. UC Santa Cruz is coached by Jonah Carson.