After setting the Missouri Valley Conference record for digs in a match on Saturday, Missouri State junior libero Cara Hackmann has been named the league’s Player of the Week and Defensive Player of the Week, it was announced Monday.

    This is Hackmann’s third league defensive award of the season and second career player of the week nod.
   
    Hackmann totaled 69 digs in two Missouri State wins last week for an 8.625 per set average, including a Valley-record 46 in Saturday’s five-set win over Evansville. Her total of 46 digs is the highest in NCAA Division I this season. The Washington, Mo., native recorded 12, 11 and 11 digs in the first three sets against UE on the way to her record total, and had at least 11 digs in four of her eight sets played in the two matches.

    She had 23 digs Friday versus Southern Illinois, including 11 in the first set, in the MSU sweep.

    Hackmann jumped from 12th to fourth in the NCAA this week in digs per set and averages 5.82 on the season, easily ahead of the school record pace of 5.14. She also moved from 15th to 10th on Missouri State’s career list and now has 1,179 in her two-and-a-half seasons.

    Missouri State is 14-4 overall, 7-0 in league play and received 14 votes in the AVCA Top 25 Poll this week, good for 34th place. The Bears travel to Bradley (9-12, 0-7) on Friday before a showdown at UNI (16-2, 7-0) on Saturday. The Panthers sit three spots ahead of MSU in the poll and in a tie for first with the Bears in the MVC standings.