NIU volleyball junior libero Crew Hoffmeier has been named the Week 4 Mid-American Conference West Division Player of the Week, the conference announced Monday.
“I’m really glad to see Crew honored because she has been working very hard since day one,” said NIU volleyball head coach Sondra Parys in an NIU Athletics press release. “She is very high energy; wants to be the best she can be, and I think you can see that in how many balls she gets up every weekend. This weekend was the same, she is 100%all the time and finds a way to get the ball up. The more we continue to work with her she is just going to get better and better.”
Hoffmeier logged a team-best 47 digs during NIU’s run at the UNI Tournament this past weekend. The transfer from Virginia Commonwealth University had double-digit digs in each match, including a weekend-best 22 digs in the Huskies’ non-conference finale against the University of Northern Iowa on Saturday. She also tallied 14 digs in NIU’s sweep over the University of North Dakota on Friday.
The honor is Hoffmeier’s first token of conference recognition since arriving from VCU over the offseason. Her 5.19 digs per set are good for the best mark in the conference and 15th in the nation. Hoffmeier’s 249 total digs also pace the MAC and rank eighth in the country.
Hoffmeier is the first Huskie to take home MAC weekly honors this season. Francesca Bertucci, Hoffmeier’s predecessor as NIU’s starting libero, was the last Huskie to earn weekly conference honors.
Hoffmeier and the Huskies resume action at 5 p.m. Thursday when NIU visits Bowling Green State University to begin MAC play.