NIU junior libero Crew Hoffmeier has a reputation for bringing fire to a volleyball court, enough of it to energize her team and sometimes a bit left over to burn through her own shoelaces.

When Hoffmeier goes to make a diving play on the court, the top of her shoes drag against the hardwood, causing the laces to fray. Hoffmeier’s status as a backrow player, which requires her to dive repeatedly in any given match, means that a set of laces doesn’t last very long.

It’s a sacrifice that comes with having a lot of “go,” a term used by volleyball coaches to refer to a player’s ability to go after anything and everything.

“She will physically run down any ball, and she will dive around,” said Dartmouth College volleyball head coach Kevin Maureen Campbell. “She’ll do whatever she needs to do to keep the ball off the ground. And that energy is … an uncommon skill.”

“That energy” refers to the vigor Hoffmeier brings to a court – and her team – during a match; the same, infectious energy that reflects her lifelong passion for the game of volleyball.

“Volleyball’s my life,” Hoffmeier said. “I’ve been playing since I was six years old, and it has created so many unique opportunities for me. I think I just love the game so much that I think my play shows how much I love it.”

CROSSROADS IN VIRGINIA

Hoffmeier’s college volleyball career got its start on the East Coast in Richmond, Virginia, where she spent two seasons as a libero and defensive specialist for the Virginia Commonwealth University Rams. Campbell was the team’s assistant coach and recruiting coordinator before becoming interim head coach in 2022 following the resignation of incumbent Jody Rogers.

After VCU finished 2022 with a 14-17 record – the program’s first losing season in seven years – Campbell and her staff departed the program, leaving Hoffmeier at a crossroads.

“I knew that I had two years left of my college career, and I decided to hop in the portal to see what my options were,” Hoffmeier said. “I wasn’t really willing to wait around to see who the head coach was going to be. I kind of just wanted to find a program that had a head coach that was already picked and that I could create a relationship pretty early on with.”

FROM FOE INTO FRIEND

NIU fit the bill with first-year head coach Sondra Parys at the helm of the program. Parys was hired in December 2022 after serving as an assistant coach at Loyola University Chicago, one of VCU’s Atlantic 10 Conference rivals. Hoffmeier’s Rams battled Parys’ Ramblers twice last season during a series in the Windy City. Both matches ended in Loyola sweeps.

When asked to recall her observations about Hoffmeier from their late-October face-offs, Parys only needed five words: “All out, all the time.”

“She makes her presence known even though she’s not the one scoring points,” Parys said. “And I think that that’s just really impactful for that position. You trust that they’re going to give it their all, all the time, and she definitely did that at VCU. She was pretty spunky, fiery and excited to play, and I think those are all very good qualities to have in a libero.”

Hoffmeier said her and Parys’ conference clash helped break the ice in their first recruiting conversation over the summer.

“That was one of the first things we bonded over during our phone call together,” Hoffmeier said. “We had the same wants of a team, a culture. We really just wanted to build a program from the ground up, and I was honored to be a part of that.”

“BIG SHOES TO FILL”…

When Hoffmeier was appointed NIU’s starting libero, she was also charged with replacing the production of 2022 MAC Defensive Player of the Year Francesca Bertucci, who departed the program during the offseason.

It was a precedent Hoffmeier was not only well aware of but also welcomed.

“I knew coming in that Francesca (Bertucci) was the Defensive Player of the Year, and I immediately knew that I had some big shoes to fill, which is honestly an honor because this team produced a Defensive Player of the Year,” Hoffmeier said. “And I felt like stepping into those shoes, I could honestly take that role.”

… AND FILLING THEM WELL

Hoffmeier’s efforts this season have allowed her to be among the best defenders in both the conference and the country. She currently leads the MAC and ranks 26th nationally in digs, averaging 4.93 per set.

The Louisville, Kentucky, native banked a MAC Defensive Player of the Week honor after her 47-dig outing at the UNI Tournament on Sept. 15 to Sept. 16. 

Hoffmeier has totaled 281 digs this season to pace the Huskies. Pairing that sum with the 714 digs from her VCU days, Hoffmeier is five digs shy of attaining the statistical milestone of 1,000 career digs. 

Hoffmeier is perched alongside junior setter Sophie Hurt atop the team leaderboard in service aces. Hoffmeier has accounted for a dozen aces in the current campaign.

THE SKY’S THE LIMIT

Since making the fateful decision to tab NIU as her next volleyball destination, Hoffmeier has called her short time in DeKalb “the best experience.”

“These girls are some of my best friends, and Sondra (Parys) has given me so much confidence as a player that I had been lacking, honestly,” Hoffmeier said. “Obviously, I’ve only been here for a few short months, but it has honestly been some of my best volleyball in years.”

With the rest of this season and another to go in Hoffmeier’s college career, Parys and Campbell are in agreement about the libero’s ceiling in the belief that there isn’t one.

“There’s no limits on what she can do,” Campbell said. “I think the next step of her development she’s already doing, which is just growing and maturing and spending time training in the game. She can go as far as she wants to.”