She started and finished the 2018 season as the best in the Great Midwest Athletic Conference.
It was only fitting that senior right-side hitter Paige VanderWall would earn the final G-MAC Volleyball Player of the Week award, bestowed Monday afternoon. This was the second time this season she has won the award, the first being after the first week of competition of the season.
The 2018 G-MAC Player of the Year, VanderWall made sure the conference championship trophy signed up for another year-long stay inside Hillsdale's George Roche Sports complex. She was simply magnificent in leading Hillsdale to three straight wins in the conference tournament last week, 3-0 over Ursuline, 3-1 over Lake Erie and 3-0 over Findlay.
In those three matches, VanderWall totaled 50 kills, 31 digs and 6 total blocks. She had a .431 hitting percentage against talented teams who knew she was getting the ball and in a conference tournament setting.
In Friday's semifinal win over Lake Erie, she was unstoppable with 25 kills and 16 digs in keying Hillsdale's 3-1 win over the Storm. She had each of Hillsdale's first five points - all on kills - to open set 3 after the Storm had tied the match with a 25-23 win in set 2.
Over the course of leading the team to back-to-back G-MAC tournament titles, VanderWall also made a little individual history of her own. She became just the second player in school history to get 400 kills in a season since the current NCAA scoring rules were implemented prior to the 2008 season.
VanderWall and the Chargers will hit the road this week for Springfield, Missouri to take on Drury University in the 2018 NCAA Division II Midwest Regional Tournament.