For the fourth time this season, Michigan freshman volleyball player Lexi Dannemiller has been named the Big Ten’s Freshman of the Week. Dannemiller shared the award with Penn State’s Micha Hancock.

“She’s doing a great job, obviously,” said Michigan coach Mark Rosen. “It’s such a challenge to come into the Big Ten and make an impact, especially at the setter position.”

Rosen said he has seen improvement from Dannemiller.

“She’s not even close to where she is going to be in a month, or a year,” Rosen said.

Dannemiller was a key factor in the Wolverines' upset of No. 16 Minnesota on Sunday. The win was the first victory in Minnesota for the Wolverines since 1997. Michigan is 18-10 overall, and 6-10 in the Big Ten.

The Wolverines are home for the remaining four games of the season.

“It’s huge to be at home. This has been a really difficult schedule,” Rosen said about the odd travel schedule and difficulty of playing in the Big Ten. “Being home for the four games will be great. We’ve been looking forward to this all year.”

Rosen said the team plans to work on being more efficient and not having so many errors. He said that the errors have forced his team to focus more on offense than it should.

Dannemiller leads the Big Ten in assists with 1,207 and is second in average assists per set with 11.72. Dannemiller recorded 91 assists last weekend in matches against Minnesota and Wisconsin. She is 13th all-time for a single-season assists.

Michigan, Eastern basketball players earn weekly awards

Players from the U-M and EMU women’s basketball teams were named their conference players of the week. Michigan senior Courtney Boylan was selected as the Big Ten Player of the Week for the first time in her career. Boylan had career highs in points, rebounds and field goals in the Wolverines' season opener against Florida.

EMU’s Tavelyn James was named the MAC West Division Player of the Week after setting scoring a school-record 42 points against Northeastern. She became the first women’s MAC player to score 40 points or more in a season-opening game. James has the three highest single-game scoring marks in program history. This is the third time in her career that James has been named MAC player of the week.

Michigan cross country teams reach NCAA Championships

Both Michigan cross country teams will be competing for a national championship next week after qualifying for the NCAA Championships.

Danielle Tauro won the individual championship at the 2011 Great Lakes Regional and the lady Wolverines won the team competition to automatically qualify for the final tournament of the year. The women’s team took four of the top eight spots and finished 32 points ahead of second-place Michigan State.

While the men’s team didn’t win the regional, their third-place finish was good enough to help Michigan earn an at-large bid to the championships. This is first time the men’s team has qualified for the championships since 2008. Three Wolverines finished in the top-25 as Craig Forys, Brendon Blacklaws and Dexter native Bobby Aprill paced the Wolverines.

Ohrman named Defensive Player of the Week

EMU defensive lineman Brad Ohrman earned MAC Defensive Player of the Week honors for the West Division after his performance against Buffalo. The Adrian native had five tackles and a sack for the Eagles in a 30-17 victory. It was the first time in his career that Ohrman won the award.

Eastern volleyball team prepares for MAC tournament

After finishing the season with a 21-10 (9-7) the EMU volleyball team enters the MAC tournament as the number five seed and will face Ball State on Friday in the opening round. The Eagles won both matches against Ball State this season, including a victory last week.

Senior setter Ashley Mason recently became the all-time sets leader in program history after recording her 487 set played on Nov. 3 against Central Michigan. Mason will finish her career second all-time in career assists.

Upcoming home schedule

Thursday:

Michigan women’s basketball - 6 p.m. vs. Utah at Crisler Arena

Michigan men’s basketball - 8:30 p.m. vs. Western Illinois at Crisler Arena

Friday:

Michigan volleyball - 7 p.m. vs. Northwestern at Cliff Keen Arena

Eastern Michigan men’s basketball - 7 p.m. vs. Arkansas-Little Rock at Convocation Center

Michigan hockey - 7:35 p.m. vs. Ohio State at Yost Ice Arena

Saturday:

Michigan football - noon vs. Nebraska at Michigan Stadium

Michigan volleyball - 7 p.m. vs. No. 7 Illinois at Cliff Keen Arena

Michigan hockey - 7:35 p.m. vs. Ohio State at Yost Ice Arena

Wednesday:

Eastern Michigan men’s basketball - 7 p.m. vs. Rochester College at Convocation Center

Michigan volleyball - 7 p.m. vs. Michigan State at Cliff Keen Arena