Sept. 25, 2000

CLEVELAND, Ohio - Senior middle hitter Michele Smith (Fremont, OH/Fremont) was named the Midwestern Collegiate Conference Volleyball Player of the Week for her performances the week of September 18-23, the league office announced today.

Smith, who ranks first in the MCC in hitting efficiency, opened the week with an outstanding performance against Eastern Michigan University on Sept. 19 to lead the Vikings to a three-game victory. Smith pounded out 16 kills in 18 attempts with not a single error for a .889 hitting efficiency to set both a CSU and MCC single-match record. The percentage topped the previous CSU record of .846 (11K-0E-13TA) taken by Stacy Profitt against St. Francis (PA) on Sept. 13, 1991 and the MCC record of .875 taken by Colleen Cunningham of Loyola Chicago against Eastern Illinois on Oct. 12, 1991. In addition, Smith's feat ranks eighth all-time in the NCAA, tied with Kate DeClerk of Kansas State, Susan Morris of UIC and Katie Hunsucker of Santa Clara.

The 6-1 captain followed that performance by smashing out 25 kills against the University of Illiniois at Chicago on Sept. 22, just one shy of her career mark of 26, and going over 1,000 kills for her career. In addition, Smith hit a sizzling .535 for the five-game match. Smith closed out the week's action by recording 10 kills against Loyola University Chicago on Sept. 23 while hitting .556.

For the week, Smith hit .620 with 51 kills and just two errors in 79 attempts and averaged 4.25 kills per game.

On the year, Smith is hitting .450. She entered the year ranked second on the MCC career chart behind Loyola's Julie McShane (.295) but currently is hitting .305. In addition, Smith ranks sixth on CSU's career kill chart with 1,015 to her credit.