FOREST, Va. – Spearheading the Guilford College women's basketball team to a 3-0 week and 7-0 start, Anna Giannopolou (Athens, Greece) anchored the Quakers defense in a trio of stout showings to claim Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) Defensive Player of the Week for the week ending on December 7^th, as announced by the conference offices on Monday afternoon.

It was a huge week on both ends for the senior, who stood out on the less-glamorous end both individually and as a part of the collective as the Quakers continued their season-opening surge. The Greek forward opened the week with 14 points and eight rebounds, six of them defensive, across just 20 minutes of action in GC's blowout of Greensboro College on Monday. Helping restrict the Pride to just .233 (21-90) shooting from the field and .121 (4-33) from three to finish with 56 points, all of those marks represented season-low figures allowed by the Guilford defense with Giannapolou securing two steals and blocking one shot in the win. She proved that was just a warm-up, as the senior put forth her best showing when Guilford needed it most in their midweek clash with Roanoke on Wednesday night. She was a force in the paint throughout a narrow contest, matching her career-high with four blocks while also coming away with three steals in the game while restricting the Maroons to 60 points on .355 shooting on the night. She did all that on top of a game-high 23 points and eight rebounds, with seven on the defensive end. Rounding out the week by leading all scorers again, this time with 19 points to go with six rebounds, four defensive, in a victory over Eastern Mennonite, Giannopolou notched one block and one steal. Locking down through the middle portion of the game and holding the Royals to just 6-of-28 shooting in the second and third quarters, Guilford permitted their guests to shoot just .379 overall and .333 from three to score 60 points in another conference win.

Pacing the league in total blocks, with 15, while standing as the runner-up in blocks per game, at 2.14, Giannopolou has experienced a return to form this winter, ranking 44^th and 35^th in Division-III in those statistics respectively. Leading the Quakers in scoring, rebounding and blocks while standing second in assists, her name is littered throughout the national and conference leaderboards in several categories while serving as the engine behind the team's top open since the 2016-17 season, at 7-0.

Giannopolou is the first Quaker to grab ODAC weekly recognition this season, and the first in over a calendar year as they last women's basketball player to net ODAC weekly honors was Skyler Furr for the week ending on November 17^th last season when she also claimed defensive honors.

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