INDIANAPOLIS – Hillsdale and Malone each shared Great Midwest Athletic Conference Volleyball Players of the Week honors for the North Division as announced on Tuesday afternoon.
 
All six postseason seeds have been decided as the end of the regular season approaches. Hillsdale has secured the overall top seed and the North Division crown and will receive one of the two first-round byes in the quarterfinals.
 
Ashland is closing in on the outright South Division title, already having locked in a share with a handful of matches remaining in the league.
 
Findlay and Walsh have also clinched postseason bids in the North Division while the South Division is represented additionally by Trevecca Nazarene and Ohio Dominican.
 
Offensive Player of the Week
Karoline Shelton
Hillsdale
Outside Hitter
Junior
Shawnee, KS (Shawnee Mission South HS)
 
Shelton and the Chargers are in the driver’s seat, not an unfamiliar position to head coach Chris Gravel’s program, with the postseason almost here.
 
The Chargers remain ranked by the AVCA at No. 19 and the first set of Midwest Region rankings came out last week with Hillsdale at No. 3.
 
The Chargers swept divisional rival Findlay in their lone match of the week to lock up the North title. Hillsdale is undefeated at 14-0 in the league standings while posting a 23-4 overall record.
 
Shelton finished with a double-double in just three sets against Findlay. She had 14 kills and hit .313 while recording 10 digs.
 
Defensive Player of the Week
Kristen Hankins
Malone
Middle Blocker
Junior
Farmington Hills, MI (Harrison HS)
 
The Pioneers ventured on a 2-0 week against Lake Erie and Ursuline to pick up their fourth and fifth conference wins in the standings.
 
Hankins had a block party up front to set the tone defensively while averaging over a block per set in both of the Malone victories.
 
The junior middle produced 10 total blocks and three of those were solo. She also added nine kills in the offensive cause.
 
Hankins is now averaging exactly one block per set on the season to rank fourth in the conference among all players.