Melissa Herrle spiked the competition to claim the first Vicksburg Post Athlete of the Week award for the 2024-25 high school sports year.

The Warren Central volleyball player received 727 of the 1,967 votes cast in an online poll of The Post’s readers to outlast a competitive batch of nominees.

Porter’s Chapel Academy softball player Audrey Carraway finished second, with 613 votes. Vicksburg High football player Abel Gonzalez was third, with 438 votes, and St. Aloysius football player Thompson Fortenberry was fourth with 239.

Herrle, a senior, totaled 20 kills, 29 assists, and served 14 aces in wins over Callaway and Vicksburg High on Aug. 27 and 29, respectively. Warren Central won both matches 3-0. After beating St. Aloysius 3-0 on Tuesday, the Lady Vikes have won nine of their last 10 matches.

This is the second time Herrle has won the Athlete of the Week award. She was also the readers’ choice for the week of Sept. 10, 2023.

Congratulations to Melissa and the other nominees, and thank you to our readers for voting.

The nominees for the Athlete of the Week award are announced each Sunday, and voting is open until midnight Tuesday. Links to the poll will be posted on our Facebook, Instagram and Twitter/X pages, as well as vicksburgpost.com.