h their regular season games with the Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC) Semifinals set for Nov. 9. They have had a momentous season with going undefeated and having many of the team members gain career highs. It also helps that they have maintained their status as the #1 team in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) top 25 poll.
“The Top 25 is determined by a points system based on how each rater rates the best teams. A team receives 30 points for each first-place vote, 29 for second-place, 28 for third place, and so on through the list,” said NAIA official website. The rankings are rated by a panel of head coaches from each conference and independents.
Liv Reitsma was one of the players that achieved a career high in assists with 2,000. Reitsma is a Setter on the volleyball team and is a junior Sports Management Leadership major from Papillion, NE. As a sophomore, Reitsma represented the team on the NW Student-Athlete Leadership Team (SALT). She also hit her 1,000th career assist as a sophomore at the game against MidAmerica Nazarene, and because of that, she was first on the team in terms of assists.
Zavyr Metzger is another player that achieved a career high, but in blocks at 350. Metzger is a middle hitter on the team, and is a junior Nursing major from Larchwood, IA. Last season, Metzger was the GPAC Co-Defensive Player of the Year, on the College Sports Communicators (CSC) Academic All-American First Team, and was on the All-Conference First Team. Metzger also led the NAIA in blocks and blocks per set.
As for team statistics, Northwestern sits at sixth place in the GPAC, and 44th in the NAIA. With the season coming to an end at the beginning of November, we can expect to see continued good performances from each of the players on the Red Raider volleyball team. The team has seven games left in their season, and with Reitsma and Metzger as leaders, we can expect great things from the team.
