FOREST, Va. - The Old Dominion Athletic Conference has released their weekly awards and the Royals have swept both, with Derek Diaz being named ODAC Offensive Player of the Week and Daeman Odom garnering ODAC Defensive Player of the Week. 

Diaz had a big weekend for the Royals, racking up 55 kills across 17 sets, averaging 3.24 K/S, which currently puts him sixth in the ODAC and 45th nationally. After picking up five kills against Wittenberg, the Junior from Puerto Rico followed that up with 12 against Thiel, a career-high 20 against Westminster and 18 in EMU's win over Marian. His 20 against Westminster was also the most in a single-match in the ODAC this season. The 18 kills against Marian is tied for the second-most in a match this season as well. He hit .287 for the weekend, including hitting .359 against Westminster and .390 against Marian. In addition to his 55 kills, he added six total blocks, for 62.5 points on the weekend, which is tops in the ODAC. His 3.68 points/set is sixth in the conference. He also picked up 28 digs on the defensive end. 

Coming off a stellar 2025 season, Odom is picking right back up where he left off defensively. After being named Second Team All-ODAC after totaling 110 total blocks, and finishing as the ODAC leader, and 10th in all of DIII, with 1.10 B/S, he kicked off the 2026 season with 23.0 total blocks across 19 sets, for an average of 1.21 B/S, which is second in the ODAC and 16th nationally. He had at least three blocks in all four matches for the Royals, including eight against Marian and seven against Thiel, with just one blocking error across that span. On the offensive side, he had 23 kills while hitting .365 with just four errors. 

The Royals went 1-3 to open the weekend, but two of their losses were five-set thrillers to Thiel and Westminster. They finished their weekend with a five-set win over Marian. The road gets tougher this weekend, as they head to Pennsylvania for the Juniata Invitational. They'll start the weekend on Friday against #16 Hobart, before finishing on Saturday against #12 New Paltz and #3 Juniata. 

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