INDIANAPOLIS – Hillsdale and Ursuline both enjoyed respective unbeaten stretches to earn a share of Great Midwest Athletic Conference Volleyball Players of the Week for the North Division as announced on Tuesday.
 
Offensive Player of the Week
Lindsey Mertz
Hillsdale
Setter
Senior
Frankenmuth, MI (Frankenmuth HS)
 
The Chargers have been nationally ranked all year while staying for multiple weeks at No. 17 in the AVCA Poll in the company of Division II’s best.
 
Mertz, already the league’s leader in assists and currently ranked eighth among all players in Division II, exceeded her season average numbers with a strong three-match stint against Davenport, Cedarville and Ohio Dominican.
 
The Chargers won all three and extended their current win streak to 14 straight while keeping a perfect 9-0 conference record intact as leaders in the North Division.
 
Mertz averaged 13.5 assists per set while finishing the week with 108 in eight sets.
 
Hillsdale leads the conference in both hitting percentage and opposing hitting percentage as Mertz averages 11.21 assists per set in 57 sets played.
 
Defensive Player of the Week
Devin Gerth
Ursuline
Outside Hitter
Junior
Elmira, Ontario, Canada (Elmira District Secondary School)
 
As one of the league’s leading hitters, Gerth has plenty of versatility on the defensive side of the floor while helping the Arrows to a pair of wins against Kentucky Wesleyan and Trevecca Nazarene.
 
The junior outside hitter has put down double-digit kill totals in all matches this season but two and has racked up five double-doubles in her last six appearances.
 
Gerth averaged over four kills per set to go with 3.5 digs per frame as the Arrows played a combined nine sets in the two wins.
 
Gerth dug out 16 attack attempts in the four-set victory over TNU and came through with 15 more in a five-set thriller against Kentucky Wesleyan. She is now averaging 3.86 kills per set and 2.82 digs.