Lacey Reitz has been named as the female winner of Northwestern College's Vander Stoep Award for the 2020-21 year by the school's athletic department.
It's the oldest of the athletic awards presented at Northwestern College.
The Vander Stoep Award began in 1946 by Arie Vander Stoep, a former business manager at the college. In 1978, Don Vander Stoep joined Arie in sponsoring the award.
The award, which can be won by juniors and seniors, takes into consideration attitude and sportsmanship on and off the playing field and comparative contribution made to the success of the team.
“Lacey had an outstanding four-year career in our volleyball program," said Northwestern coach Kyle Van Den Bosch. "Lacey has been the starting setter since our very first match of her freshman season and is a great competitor who has a strong knowledge of the game of volleyball. Lacey's quickness and speed to which she played allowed her to get her hands on about any ball on the court. Lacey was always looking for ways to improve her setting skills as well as finding ways to make our team the best it could be. She helped lead our team to a pair of conference titles and two runner-up finishes.“
Reitz is a three-time NAIA/AVCA all-American for the Red Raiders and was the NAIA Setter of the Week four times.
She was a four-time all-Great Plains Athletic Conference selection, was a first-team choice three times and twice was named GPAC Setter of the Year. Reitz was the GPAC Freshman of Year in 2017 and was Setter of the Week 10 times.
Reitz finished with 5,359 career assists, which is the second-most in program history. In her career, she had 66 matches with 40+ assists and 31 double-doubles (assists-digs).
Reitz is a two-time NAIA Scholar Athlete and a CoSIDA Academic All-American in 2019.
The Red Raiders had a record of 110-22 in her four years in Orange City, an .833 percentage. They reached the NAIA tournament all four years and advanced to the quarterfinals twice.