GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. – This week is homecoming week at Colorado Mesa and one of the many traditions that involves the athletic department is the induction of members into the Hall of Honor.
 
The ceremony typically revolves around a football game each year with inductees honored during halftime but this year, with COVID-19 delaying homecoming to the spring, the honorees will be honored following the top-ranked Colorado Mesa baseball team's game with MSU Denver on Friday just prior to a firework show.
 
Colorado Mesa will induct two female athletes this year both of whom competed during the early to mid-2000s in volleyball standout Nikki Kneuer (Green) and women's basketball star Brittany Barney (Fowler).
 
Nikki Kneuer was a standout volleyball player for the Mavericks who was fortunate enough to play for both the legendary coach Rusty Crick and current coach Dave Fleming. She was one of the most explosive players in the RMAC during her time from 2002-05, earning honorable mention all-American honors in 2004 by the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA).
 
She was a three-time all-Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference selection and ranks No. 1 in program history in all-time kills during the rally scoring era, which began in 2001, with 1,668 kills. She ranks No. 6 in digs with 1,081 during that time as well.
 
Her 558 kills in 2004 and 431 kills in 2003 rank No. 2 and No. 3 all-time for single-season kills.
 
Kneuer is the 11th volleyball member joining her former coach Rusty Crick and the 1986 volleyball team to be inducted into the Colorado Mesa Hall of Honor.
 
Brittany Barney (formerly Fowler) was one of the greatest scorers in the rich history of Colorado Mesa women's basketball where she starred from 2004-2008. She ranks second all-time in total points during her career with 1, 594 trailing only Hall of Honor inductee Tonya Stites.
 
Barney also ranks second in all-time steals with 201 and second in three-point field goal percentage at 39.2, trailing only Sharaya Selsor.
 
She was the RMAC West Division Player of the Year, an all-Region selection and a four-time all-Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference honoree.
 
Barney is the fifth women's basketball student-athlete to be inducted into the Colorado Mesa Hall of Honor.
 
Kneuer and Barney will be on campus this week attending numerous events including the RMAC Volleyball Tournament match, the baseball firework game, the Victory Dinner and Bonfire.