INDIANAPOLIS – East and West Division Great Midwest Athletic Conference Volleyball Players of the Week from Lake Erie and Cedarville were both honored on Monday afternoon by the league.
Nine Great Midwest Teams are preparing for the 10th annual Midwest Region Volleyball Crossover at the Great Lakes Center this weekend in Aurora, Ill., as the conference schedule takes a brief intermission.
Findlay, Hillsdale, Walsh, Cedarville, Lake Erie, Kentucky Wesleyan, Davis & Elkins, Ohio Dominican and Ohio Valley, will represent the Great Midwest in the 36-team field at the Midwest Region Crossover seeded in order.
In Week 5, Findlay broke into the AVCA Top-25 rankings at No. 25 but suffered a rare defeat at the hands of Lake Erie. LEC in turn was beat by Hillsdale in another competitive battle.
Cross-divisional play was the theme of last week as teams work towards playoff positioning for the Great Midwest Championship.
Davis & Elkins beat a pair of West Division foes while Cedarville beat two of the top teams in the East Division, Walsh and Malone. Hillsdale was the other team to go 2-0 as the Chargers extended their current win streak to eight straight.
Walsh and Malone remain the co-divisional leaders in the East while Findlay still sits at the top in the West at 9-1.
East Division Player of the Week
Sidney Fletcher
Lake Erie
Libero
Senior
Saline, MI (Saline HS)
Fletcher’s numbers simply couldn’t be ignored against the top two teams in the Great Midwest, regardless of division, from her role as libero on the Storm.
As Lake Erie took on West Division powers No. 25 Findlay and Hillsdale, the senior produced impressive numbers with 7.75 digs per set in the two matches.
Fletcher dug out 33 attack attempts in LEC’s upset win against UF as the Storm took care of business in four sets. She followed with similar numbers with 29 digs and a serve receive percentage of .962 in the four-set final against Hillsdale.
She was also credited with 11 assists and put down four service aces.
Fletcher and the Storm are currently third in the East Division behind Malone and Walsh. She is the current league leader in digs per set at 5.12 with 348 total in the season to date.
West Division Player of the Week
Gabby Olson
Cedarville
Middle Blocker
Senior
Gibsonia, PA (Pine-Richland HS)
Olson and the Yellow Jackets powered through some clutch moments to take down East Division co-leaders Walsh and Malone last week. Cedarville improved to 7-2 in the West and is now 9-10 overall.
Olson, the reigning G-MAC Player of the Year, hit .373 while averaging 1.67 blocks per set. She also put down three kills per set and averaged nearly two digs per game in a strong all-around week.
In a gripping five-set finish against Walsh, Olson tallied 16 kills, seven blocks and six digs. Versus Malone the next day, she recorded 11 kills, eight blocks and nine digs.
Olson also had a total of seven service aces between both contests.
Olson is currently fifth in the Great Midwest in hitting percentage (.309), sixth in kills per set (3.14) and is tops in blocks per set (1.19).