Stephanie Swiger had quite a weekend. For starters, she led the women’s volleyball team to a first-place finish at the Best Western Invitational, earning Most Valuable Player honors. That on the heels of a career performance in the Championship match against Valparaiso, where she recorded a career-high 22 kills. To cap it all off, she was named Mid-American Conference East Division Player of the Week.

This kind of praise, however, is not new to Swiger. She is a three-time recipient of the Player of the Week award, earning her first as a young sophomore, two back-to-back last year as a junior and now as a stand-out senior.

As a kills specialist, she relies heavily on her teammates to get digs and set the ball to her, giving her prime opportunities to score points.

“This award is a true testament to my great teammates,” Swiger said.

Without her teammates she feels this award would not be possible.

Swiger got her first taste of volleyball in seventh grade, and it’s one of her favorite stories to tell the kids she coaches in the summer. The story goes that her first coach told her to find a new sport to play because he thought that she simply wasn’t good enough. Swiger, not easily discouraged and certainly not lacking motivation, worked really hard on her game by training as well as playing travel volleyball. Two years later, she made her high school varsity team as a freshman, proving her seventh grade coach very wrong.

When asked about who influenced her the most growing up playing volleyball, she proudly replies, “My parents.”

Her parents were always there for her, lending her support at the numerous volleyball tournaments she participated in as a youth. Not to mention all the time and money it takes to fund those trips.

“My scholarship is me paying them back,” she said with a smile.

As her final year draws to an end, she reflects on what she will miss most about her time at BG.

“My teammates, Anderson Arena, and the four hours a day I knew I would spend with them there” the special bonds we shared,” Swiger said.

Being someone recognized by the MAC for great academics, last year receiving First Team All-Academic, when Swiger leaves BG she wants people to think of her as a person who exemplified what a student athlete should be, not just for her success on the court, but also for what she did off the court.

“I want to leave a more rounded legacy,” Swiger said.