Athletes of the Week: Abby Borkowski & Sam Veronica

Make that “Athletes” of the Week.

It was a double shot of first times for our Athlete of the Week award as, for the first time since WNY Athletics launched, we not only have a female winner, we have co-winners from the same team.

Junior Abby Borkowski and sophomore Samantha Veronica of the Kenmore West Lady Blue Devils volleyball team took home our award for the week ending Oct. 23.

Veronica, the team’s starting setter, and Borkowski its starting outside hitter, were key in the Blue Devils scoring back-to-back 3-0 wins over Kenmore East (Oct. 19) and Niagara-Wheatfield (Oct. 21).

They were both big parts of why Ken-West was able to dig out of an 8-0 hole in game one against Wheatfield as they rolled off three wins.

The win over Wheatfield not only secured third place in the Niagara Frontier League for Ken-West, currently ranked No. 7 in WNY Large School. It also sealed the No. 4 spot in AA and home court in the quarterfinals.

Veronica, who was the spark to the offense, had two game totals of 55 assists, 14 kills and eight aces.

“She’s been doing a great job running our middles. Getting our middles more involved in matches,” Kenmore West coach Kelly Strong said.

“And we can run a little bit more of a dynamic offense with her and a little quicker offense. She’s really been able to get the ball out quick to our outside hitters which has helped giving our hitters some open looks.”

Borkowski, who had made a successful transition from starting setter to full time outside hitter, had totals of: 29 kills, 28 digs, five aces and played a flawless all-around game on both days.

“Abby has taken the bulk of our offense,” Strong said. “She had over 40 attempts in both matches. What is amazing about Abby is she not only had the power, she has the consistency. She makes very few errors with having that many attempts in a match.”

Congratulations Abby and Sammy!