Ball State University Athletics
McCormick Named CVU.com National Player of the Week
October 02, 2006 | Women's Volleyball
Official CVU.com Release in PDF Format
Muncie, Ind. - - One day after earning recognition as the Mid-American Conference West Division Player of the Week, Ball State women's volleyball senior libero Amanda McCormick (Muncie, Ind./Burris H.S.) has been named the Collegiate Volleyball Update (CVU.com) National Player of the Week for the week of Sept. 25 through Oct. 1.
McCormick, the only women's volleyball player in school history to earn national player of the week accolades, is also the first two-time recipient of CVU.com's top weekly individual honor in the three-year history of the award.
"This is a tremendous achievement for Amanda," said Ball State head coach Randy Litchfield. "To be the first player in the country to earn CVU.com National Player of the Week accolades twice truly says how good and consistent Amanda's defensive play has been over the last two seasons. It is great to see her recognized at the highest level for what was one of the most dominating defensive performance in NCAA history last Thursday versus Toledo, as well as for her play throughout the entire season."
McCormick - - who is just the fourth player in MAC history to earn CVU.com National Player of the Week accolades - - earns the honor after collecting 96 digs in the Cardinals' three matches last week for an impressive 8.73 digs-per-game average. For the season, McCormick upped her digs-per-game average to an NCAA-leading 7.07.
After opening the week with 25 digs in Tuesday's three-game victory at Butler, McCormick turned in the best performance of her career in Thursday's MAC home opener versus Toledo, when she recorded a Worthen Arena, Ball State and MAC record 50 digs to help lead BSU to a 3-2 come-from-behind victory over the Rockets.
The 50 digs topped the previous arena, school and MAC record of 49 set by Stephanie Keller versus Eastern Michigan on Nov. 12, 2004. In addition, she become the first player in MAC history to log 50 digs in a match, as well as just the second player in the country - - joining Arizona State's Sydney Donahue who recorded 50 versus Loyola Marymount on Aug. 26 - - to hit the half-century mark this season.
McCormick is just one of 14 players in NCAA Division I history to post 50-or-more digs in a match, with two players - - Allison Anderson (Boston College) and Catalina Suarez (UMKC) - - reaching the mark twice. The NCAA Division I record for digs in a match is 58 by Northwestern State's Tanya Champagne in a five-game match versus Nicholls State on Nov. 1, 1985.
McCormick would go on to add a career-best 11 assists in the victory over Toledo for her first career double-double. In addition, she scored two of the team's nine service aces. She would finish the week with 21 digs in Saturday's three-game sweep at Buffalo.
McCormick first picked up CVU.com National Player of the Week accolades for the week of Oct. 31 through Nov. 6, 2005, when she tallied a then-career-best 37 digs in BSU's 3-0 victory over Toledo (Nov. 5). The 37 digs were the most in a three-game set in the nation last season and tie as the third-most in a three-game match in NCAA history. At the end of the season, CVU.com honored McCormick as a Libero of the Year Honorable Mention, as well as on the Stellar Spikers First Team.
McCormick enters this week with 1,869 career digs - - with 1,151 coming at Ball State and 718 coming at Nebraska. The total leaves her 21 digs shy of breaking into the top 25 in NCAA Division I history at 1,890. In addition, she only needs 131 more digs to become just the 17th player in NCAA Division I annals to reach 2,000 career digs.
Ball State returns to Worthen Arena Friday, when it continues league play with a 7 p.m. showdown versus No. 21 Ohio.
