INDIANAPOLIS – Hillsdale College senior volleyball student-athlete Paige VanderWall was officially unveiled as the 2018-19 Great Midwest Athletic Conference Female Athlete of the Year on Tuesday morning.
VanderWall helped push the Chargers into more coveted territory at the regional and national levels with a notable list of accomplishments in 2018. She was the recipient of the league’s annual honor following a vote among administrators from the league’s member institutions.
Similar to the men’s stacked list of nominees, VanderWall separated herself from a handful of very successful women’s student-athletes as the league completed its seventh year of history.
It has been nothing short of a dominant two-year run for the Chargers with the rangy 5-10 right side covering plenty of ground for a back-to-back conference championship program.
VanderWall also helped Hillsdale punch its ticket to the NCAA Championship Midwest Regional for the second consecutive year with the league’s AQ. The Chargers topped the West Division with an unbeaten record of 19-0 in league play while finishing their memorable season with a 25-7 overall mark.
The product from Kentwood, Mich., was simply explosive off the ground and packed a punch with her left-handed swing.
VanderWall was revealed as the Great Midwest Player of the Year for the second season in a row while also landing a spot on the all-conference first team. She was also named the D2CCA Midwest Region Player of the Year, the first time a volleyball student-athlete from the league has been able to win the individual honor.
VanderWall also earned All-American status from the AVCA for the second season in a row after grabbing Second Team honors in 2017. In 2018, she was named as a third-team selection.
VanderWall’s prolific career finished with two years in the Great Midwest as she finished with 741 kills. She averaged 3.60 per set, numbers that currently have her fourth all-time among everyone in league history.
She also was one of the most efficient with her attacking percentage of .328 also currently fourth among all players in conference career history.
VanderWall was the league leader in kills per set, second in points per set and third overall in hitting percentage. She finished her four-year career with 1,293 kills in a Hillsdale uniform and had seven matches with 20 or more kills in 2018.
VanderWall earned one conference divisional athlete of the week award in both 2017 and 2018 for her efforts.
VanderWall is just the second volleyball student-athlete to receive the conference’s annual award since 2012-13, joining Ohio Valley’s Alyx Henry (2014-15). She is also the first Hillsdale student-athlete to receive the distinction, male or female.