INDIANAPOLIS – A pair of perfect weeks helped Hillsdale and Walsh earn divisional selections for Great Midwest Athletic Conference Volleyball Players of the Week as announced on Monday.
 
The Cavaliers are 12-2 overall and remain perfect as East Division leaders at 6-0 with all of those wins in consecutive fashion on the road. Walsh was unbeaten through the West Virginia swing with wins against Ohio Valley, Davis & Elkins and Alderson Broaddus.
 
Walsh has emerged as a legitimate contender to host the conference championship this season. A huge matchup looms on Friday at home against Lake Erie in a battle of first and second place in the East.
 
Malone is on a five-match win streak tied with LEC for second in the East standings. The Pioneers are 10-4 after beating the same three opponents Walsh faced; a head-to-head setback suffered against Walsh is the difference for Malone in the divisional standings.
 
In the West, Findlay remains in control at the top at 5-0 and 12-1 overall. The Oilers are holding off Cedarville in second as the Yellow Jackets swept Lake Erie and Ursuline. Hillsdale’s two divisional defeats were against Findlay and Cedarville.
 
The Great Midwest is also getting set to be represented at the Midwest Fall Regional Crossover in Aurora, Ill., on Oct. 13-14 at the Great Lakes Center. The league will have nine teams competing along with the GLIAC and GLVC.
 
East Division Player of the Week
Olivia Zanolli
Walsh
Setter
Jr. – North Canton, OH (Jackson HS)
 
From the setter position, Zanolli directs traffic for a deadly offense and she averaged 11.55 assists and two digs per set in the Cavaliers’ three wins.
 
Zanolli had 45 assists against Ohio Valley in a four-set Walsh win to start the week. She followed that up with 44 dished against Davis & Elkins with an incredible .917 percentage on 48 set attempts; Zanolli also contributed four kills vs. the Senators.
 
Zanolli helped the Cavaliers take care of business in straight sets against Alderson Broaddus with 38 assists and eight digs. She also had five blocks against the Battlers.
 
The homegrown product from North Canton is currently the league leader in assists (573) and assists per set (11.02) through 52 sets played this season.
 
West Player of the Week
Paige VanderWall
Hillsdale
Right Side
Jr. – Kentwood, MI (East Kentwood HS)
 
VanderWall has had some impressive hitting percentages in matches this season and a two-game stretch produced similar results as she hit .512 in a pair of Chargers wins.
 
For the weekend, the junior spiked down 23 kills and just two errors in six sits, with a two-match hitting percentage of .512 on 41 attack attempts.
 
In Friday’s win over Kentucky Wesleyan, VanderWall had 12 kills, seven digs and had a .478 hitting percentage.
 
In Saturday’s sweep of Trevecca in Nashville, she put down 11 kills, had two assists, two service aces, two digs and a .556 hitting percentage, her second-best total of the season. For both matches, she averaged 3.83 kills per set.
 
VanderWall now ranks fifth in the league in hitting percentage (.318), ninth in kills per set (2.98) and eighth in points.