Ball State and Purdue Fort Wayne student-athletes earned the Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association Player of the Week awards on Tuesday (Feb. 27), the MIVA announced. Tinaishe Ndavazocheva was the Offensive honoree and Wilmer Hernandez was picked as the Defensive recipient.

In Ball State’s only match of the week, Ndavazocheva led the Cardinals to a 3-0 victory over Quincy. The junior outside hitter had 15 kills on 22 attempts with just one error, working out to a .636 hitting percentage. He added an ace in the win. His 15 kills averaged to 5.00 per set. This is Ndavazocheva’s second Player of the Week award in his career.

Hernandez led Purdue Fort Wayne to a 2-1 week, finishing with 35 total digs in his three matches. The graduate student libero had 19 digs in a four-set win over McKendree, which stands as the most in a four-set match in the National Collegiate this season. Hernandez followed that up with 10 more digs in the five-set rematch win with the Bearcats. He started the week with six digs at Ohio State. For the week, he averaged 2.69 digs per set with just two reception errors. This is Hernandez’ first Player of the Week award.

2024 MIVA Players of the Week
Offensive
1/9 - Andrej Polomac, Purdue Fort Wayne
1/16 - Jacob Pasteur, Ohio State
1/23 - Jacob Pasteur, Ohio State
1/30 - Parker Van Buren, Loyola Chicago
2/6 - Jon Diedrich, Purdue Fort Wayne
2/13 - Tyler Poulsen, McKendree
2/20 - Patrick Rogers, Ball State
2/26 - Tinaishe Ndavazocheva, Ball State

Defensive
1/9 - Justin Howard, Ohio State
1/16 - Nico Paula, Lewis
1/23 - Ryan Collins, Lewis
1/30 - Nikos Xydakis, McKendree
2/6 - Nico Paula, Lewis
2/13 - Kevin Schuele, McKendree
2/20 - Noah Varga, Lindenwood
2/26 - Wilmer Hernandez, Purdue Fort Wayne

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