CALVIN KNIGHT SPORTS REPORT FOR NOV. 20, 2014
Maggie Kamp Named AVCA Division III Volleyball Player of the Year;
Nicole Michmerhuizen Receives NCAA III Top 10 Award
VOLLEYBALL
NEWPORT NEWS, VA - Calvin College junior outside hitter Maggie Kamp has been named the Division III National Player of the Year by the American Volleyball Coaches Association. The award was announced this evening at a pre-nationals banquet hosted by Christopher Newport University.
A native of Orland Park, Illinois, Kamp is a graduate of Chicago Christian High School. Her award is a historical one as it marks the fourth consecutive year a member of the Calvin women's volleyball team has received the AVCA Division III National Player of the Year award. Prior to this year, no school had ever done so with the previous high-water mark of three consecutive years achieved by Washington University of St. Louis from 1988-to-1990 and from 1993-to-1995, Central College (IA) from 1998-to-2000 and Juniata from 2006-to-2008.
Kamp is also the third member of her family to receive the honor as oldest sister Rebecca Kamp was the first individual from Calvin to receive the award back in 2011 with sister Lizzie Kamp receiving the honor in 2012. In the history of NCAA III women's volleyball, there has never been three sisters that have all received AVCA National Player of the Year honors. Calvin setter Megan Rietema was the AVCA Division III National Player of the Year in 2013.
At Calvin, Maggie Kamp has been a three-year starter at outside hitter including as a sophomore on Calvin's 2013 national championship team. In the national championship final she collected a career-high 27 kills and was subsequently named the Most Outstanding Player of the 2013 National Finals at Hope College.
Yesterday she was named a first team AVCA Division III All-American for the second consecutive year. She was also a member of the AVCA Division III Great Lakes All-Region team.
This year, Kamp was named the MIAA's Most Valuable Player and was also named to the All-MIAA first team for the second straight year after helping Calvin gain a share of the final MIAA regular season title while also capturing the MIAA Tournament title.
During the season, she was named MIAA's Player of the Week three times. She was named to the all-tournament team at the Clarkson Classic during the opening weekend of the season.
Last weekend, she was named the Most Outstanding Player of the NCAA III Regional tournament held at Carthage College. In four-set victory over Carthage in the regional final, she tallied 14 kills, 19 digs, three service aces and three block assists.
At outside hitter, she ranks 13th nationally in kills-per-set (4.44) and 17th in points-per-set (4.88).
Kamp has helped Calvin gain the number-one ranking in the AVCA Division III Top 25 poll while also advancing to the quarterfinals of the NCAA III Tournament for the fourth time in five years. Calvin will face host Christopher Newport in the quarterfinals on Thursday at 8 p.m.
WOMEN'S TRACK AND FIELD/CROSS COUNTRY
Recent Calvin College graduate Nicole Michmerhuizen has added yet another prestigious honor from the NCAA to her long list of awards. Earlier today Michmerhuizen was announced as one of the recipients of the NCAA's Top 10 Award.
Michmerhuizen is currently a graduate student at the University of Michigan pursuing her master's and Ph.D.
She is the second individual in Calvin athletics history to receive the honor as former Calvin women's basketball and track and field athlete Lisa Winkle received the award in 2007.
Michmerhuizen is part of a group of extraordinary student-athletes who will be honored in January as the NCAA Today's Top 10 Award winners.
The award recognizes former student-athletes for their successes on the fields and courts, in the classroom and in the community. Recipients completed their athletics eligibility during the 2013-14 academic year and will be recognized at the Honors Celebration during the NCAA Convention in the Washington, D.C. area.
The NCAA Honors Committee selects the honorees and is comprised of representatives of member schools and conferences, as well as nationally distinguished former student-athletes.
Before 2013, the award recognized eight student-athletes and was known as Today's Top VIII. The NCAA Honors Committee then expanded the award to include 10 honorees to recognize the increased number of student-athletes, sports and championship opportunities.
A five-time NCAA III All-American in track and field, ran cross country and track and field, Michmerhuizen won the Division III individual national championship 10,000 meter run in 2013.
The former team captain led her team to four Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association conference championships in track and field and three MIAA conference championships in cross country. Michmerhuizen holds the school record in the 5,000 meters and 10,000 meters, and her 10,000 meter personal best time is the seventh fastest in NCAA Division III history.
During her time at Calvin, she received three Capital One Academic All-America honors and multiple academic scholarship awards, including the 2014 NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship and the 2013-14 Goldwater Research Scholarship, for pursuing DNA research on diabetes as an undergraduate student.
She presented research at the Annual Biophysical Society Meetings in Philadelphia in 2013 and San Francisco in 2014, and has published research articles in the Journal of Physical Chemistry, Journal of Virology and Biophysical Journal.
Michmerhuizen also spent time working in her community, teaching Sunday school and volunteering with a homeless shelter, the Special Olympics and the West Michigan food bank.
Received on Fri Nov 21 00:58:52 2014
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