Saint Joseph's College senior quarterback Billy VandeMerkt, University of Indianapolis senior linebacker Todd Hacker, and Truman State University senior return specialist Tremaine Millender have earned the first weekly awards of the Great Lakes Valley Conference football season.  VandeMerkt has been named GLVC Offensive Player of the Week honors, Hacker earns Defensive Player of the Week, and Millender takes home Special Teams Player of the Week accolades.

Millender becomes the first Truman student-athlete ever to be honored by the GLVC.  The Frisco, Texas, native helped the Bulldogs to a 40-37 home win over Southwest Baptist (Mo.) University on Saturday.  Millender finished with 163 yards on three kickoff returns, including his second kickoff return for a touchdown.  He became the fourth Bulldog and tied a GLVC record with a 100-yard kickoff return that broke a 14-all tie in the second quarter and kept Truman in front the rest of the night.  Millender also added 27 yards on eight rushes and scored the game's first touchdown, but it was his kickoff return numbers that reset the conference records book.  In addition to tying the GLVC record with the 100-yard touchdown return, which was established earlier that day by McKendree's Ryan Keen, Millender's 163 return yards were 11 markers better than the previous conference record set by William Jewell's Thomas Cook, Jr., against Indianapolis (10/27/12) last season, while his 54.3-yard average shattered Urbana's James Duncan's GLVC-best of 30.8 versus Seton Hill (9/8/12) last year.