Kennedy sweeps Heart Player of the Week honors after second-career triple-double

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Following one of the best statistical individual performances in school history, Clarke University women's basketball junior Zoe Kennedy swept the Heart of America Athletic Conference's Offensive and Defensive Player of the Week awards on Monday, Heart officials announced.

Kennedy becomes just the fifth player to earn both weekly honors since the defensive player of the week award was introduced in the conference and NAIA prior to the start of the 2024-25 season as Kennedy earns her third Offensive Player of the Week over that time frame and this becomes her first Defensive Player of the Week.

In two games last week, Kennedy came two assists shy of back-to-back triple-doubles as she produced 22 points, 10 rebounds, and eight assists in a road non-conference loss at Haskell on Monday, Jan. 12 before bouncing back in a big way to an 81-58 victory at William Woods on Saturday, Jan. 17 where she would record a triple-double of 20 points, 15 rebounds, and 10 assists, while adding four steals and four blocked shots, the last two stats playing big factors to the defensive side of the award sweep along with 20 combined defensive rebounds over the two games and two steals in the game against Haskell.

Over those two games, Kennedy also shot exactly 50 percent from the field, going 8-for-16 at Haskell then 7-for-14 against William Woods while hitting four of her 13 three point attempts and going 4-for-5 from the free throw line in each game to shoot 80 in the 10 attempts from the line while also playing in all but three minutes of both games combined, a full 40 minutes at Haskell and 37 minutes against William Woods.

This is the second Heart Offensive Player of the Week for Kennedy this season after she received the honor on Nov. 25 after a 25.5 points per game week and her triple-double on Saturday is the second of her career after she did so nearly a year ago on Jan. 4, 2025 as the first triple-double in the program since 2018 when recently inducted Clarke Hall of Famer Kea Whittington did so.

Through 18 games this season, Kennedy is averaging 19.8 points per game on 46.6 percent shooting from the field, 36 percent shooting from three point range, and 89.9 percent shooting from the free throw line while also averaging 7.7 rebounds per game, 4.8 assists per game, 1.8 steals per game, and 1.0 blocks per game as every stat outside of the three point percentage improvements from her 2024-25 averages where she was a First Team All Conference selection.

Kennedy and the Clarke women's basketball team will be returning to their home court of the Kehl Center on Wednesday, Jan. 21 when they welcome Culver-Stockton College for a 5:30 p.m. CT opening tip between the Pride and Wildcats.