2 Illinois Players of the Week 1 Penn State All American

#2 posting 11.25.2008
your daily dose of girls volleyball news & information

AWARDS
BIG 10
Illinois took both honors with Laura DeBruhler taking the offensive and Johannah Bangert taking the defensive honors.

Penn State's Christa Harmatto is ESPN The Magazine Academic All-American of the Year. Harmatto is on the first team. Teammate Megan Hodge is on the second team.

Badger coach Pete Waite meets the press. Wisconsin might need a win to get to the NCAA tournament.

MISSOURI VALLEY: 2nd place Creighton heads to the Missouri Valley Tournament at Wichita State.

POLLS
Colorado State is #19 in the latest D1 poll.

SIGNINGS
Ohio State has signed 3 players
6-1 RH Emily Danks of Round Rock, TX
6-0 setter Amanda Peterson of Glenbard East, IL
6-3 middle hitter Mariah Booth of Kennesaw Mountain, GA

Cincinnati has signed 3 players
5-11 setter Megan Turner, Wayne Central, NY
5-11 outside hitter/middle blocker Emily Hayden of Louisville Assumption, KY
6-2 middle blocker Rebecca Refenes of Westland Lutheran, MI

Next up: tomorrow

All Americans, Ysker Signs, Neubeck Digs It

#2 posting 11.21.2008
your daily dose of girls volleyball news & information

ALL AMERICANS
The Under Armour All-American teams have been announced.
Minnesota players teams include
First Team
Katherine Harms, St. Michael-Albertville RS/OPP, 6-1, Minnesota
Second Team
Amy Braun, Lakeville North OH, 5-11, Northern Iowa
Tia Gaffen, Wayzata MB, 6-2, California

Also making the second team is a Gopher recruit
Mia Tabberson, Muncie Burris, IN S, 6-1, Minnesota

SIGNING
Megan Ysker of Windom signed Thursday with MN State-Mankato. Ysker is a Setter/hitter for the State A Champion Eagles.
Ysker is the 28th player overall to verball from the Minnesota 2009 class and the 17th headed to a D2 program.

DIGGING IT
Northeastern's Leah Neubeck (Hopkins) is currently fifth in the Colonial conference in digs for this year. She got her 1000th during the seasons first pre season game. She's got 334 for this season so far. She is close to 1334 for a career.

ALL CONFERENCE
SOUTH CENTRAL
Danika Stindtman, Blue Earth
Kirsten Johanson, Blue Earth
Kate Hassing, Blue Earth
Jenny Smith, Blue Earth
Steph Brolsma, Fairmont
Ashley Allevan, Fairmont
Kayla Altmann, New Ulm
Marissa Kliimmek, New Ulm
Courtney Kral, New Ulm
Hannah Reuter, St. James
Karen Gore, St. Peter
Allison Ruedy, Waseca
Casie DeVos, Waseca
Honorable Mention
Morgan Dickman, Blue Earth
Sam Waletich, Fairmont
Megan Parnell, Fairmont
Molly Gareis, New Ulm
Abbie Curry, St. James
Katy Kuiper, St. Peter
Kelly Loonan, Waseca
Caitlin Whitney, Waseca

NORTHWOODS
Kate Aakre, Clearbrook-Gonvick
Brittany Nelson Olson, Clearbrook-Gonvick
Rachel Peterson, Blackduck
Briana Grapevine, Northome-Kelliher
Danielle Jourdain, Cass Lake-Bena
Heather Felix, Walker-Hackensack-Akeley
Sharayah Day, Laporte
Jessica Winter, Laporte
Katie Wangberg, Pine River-Backus
Crysta Christensen, Pine River-Backus
Kendra Hamilton, Pine River-Backus
Maggie Lindow, Nevis
Cassie Edwards, Nevis
Megan Stambaugh, Nevis
Riley Hanson, Nevis
Honorable mentions
Amanda Eck, Clearbrook-Gonvick
Karli Watne, Clearbrook-Gonvick
Mollie Ann Exner, Blackduck
Jamie Magoon, Blackduck
Brook Lindner, Northome-Kelliher
Brittany Hand, Northome-Kelliher
Ann Aitken, Cass Lake-Bena
Tonya Morris, Cass Lake-Bena
Sydney Westfield, Walker-H-A
Alexandra Barber, Walker-H-A
Kelly Kampfer, Laporte
Kim Hyatt, Laporte
Trisha Mongan, Pine River-Backus
Scarlet Rudlang, Pine River-Backus
Kjera Gustafson, Nevis
Annessa Feder, Nevis

If you haven't seen your all conference list up please send it to me.

next up: College results

Braun Miss Volleyball, Austin All Area

#1 posting 11.18.2008
your daily dose of girls volleyball news & information

MISS VOLLEYBALL
It hasn't really been reported, but Amy Braun of Lakeville North is the 2008 Miss Volleyball in Minnesota. Braun was the AAA player up for the award. Brittany Chambers of Jordan was the AA player and Kate Horihan of Mabel-Canton was the A player up for the honor.

ALL AREA
The Austin Daily Herald has released their All Area team.

ALL REGION
St. Benedict's Emma Jaynes (Hibbing) has made the All Region team and is 2nd team All American by the AVCA. From the St. Cloud Times.

POLLS
D1: Minnesota has now moved up three spots to #12. Colorado State is #15. Cincinnati received votes.

D2: SW MN State has moved up one spot to #7. From the Marshall Independent. Augustana is #22.

BIG 10
Alisha Glass of Penn State is the offensive player of the week and Stephanie Lynch of Purdue is the defensive player of the week in the Big 10.

Iowa faces Ohio State & Michigan next.

Michigan is at Minnesota and Iowa.

MORE D1 NEWS
BIG SKY: Weber State's Brittany Bisaillon (Jackson County Central) was named Big Sky player of the week.

SUN BELT: Denver is the #3 seed in the Sun Belt Tournament.

SUMMIT: North Dakota State is the #1 seed in the Summit Tournament. The Bison face IUPUI at Oral Roberts. For some reason the #1 seed is not the host in the Summit.

GREAT WEST: MH Amanda Polzin of Hutchinson has been named the Fighting Sioux Athlete of the Week.

PAC 10: Washington State takes on rival #5 Washington.

SIGNINGS
Virginia has signed 2 players
6-3 MB Tobi Farrar of Arlington, TX
6-1 MB Jessica O’Shoney of Austin Hutto, TX

Next up: tomorrow unless news breaks

11 Big 10 All Americans, Penn State Final 4

#1 posting 12.13.2007
your daily dose of girls volleyball news & information

ALL AMERICANS D1
There were 11 All Americans from the Big Ten. Five schools were represented.

Big 10 champ and NCAA final four member Penn State had 4 players: Nicole Fawcett, Megan Hodge, and Christa Harmatto all were first team. Alisha Glass was second team.

Wisconsin had two players--Brittney Dolgner (2nd team) and Taylor Reineke (3rd team).

Purdue's Stephanie Lynch made the Honorable Mention list.

No Gophers made the list.

FINAL FOUR
Here are the quotes at the Final Four press conference. Penn State scouts opponent Cal.

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A JUCO PLAYER
All American Hilary Groothuis of Ridgewater has her time commitment examined in the West Central Tribune.

next up: tomorrow

All American and Attendance

#1 posting 12.12.2007
your daily dose of volleyball news & information

NCAA TOURNANMENT
The Big 10 is back in the final four of the NCAA volleyball tournament with Penn State. The last time a Big 10 team cracked the final four was Minnesota in 2004. Penn State last made the final four in 1999 when they won it all.

ALL AMERICAN
Hilary Groothuis of Ridgewater CC was named to the NJCAA Division III All-America Volleyball Team. Groothuis played her high school ball at MACCRAY. From the West Central Tribune.

ATTENDANCE
Minnesota finished #4 in attendance in the NCAA figures released yesterday.
Hawaii was #1 with 6452 average.
The Big 10 had three in the top five with Wisconsin #3 and Penn State #5, and 10 in the top 35. Only Northwestern didn't make the cut.
Iowa State came in at #20. Their attendance has skyrocketed since Christy Johnson became coach.

SUMMER CAMP
Purdue is already busy with plans for the summer 2008 camp. Purdue recently has released their spring schedule too.

Braegelmann D2 Player of the Year

#1 posting 11.29.2007
your daily dose of girls volleyball news & information

D1 TOURNMENT
The Gophers had to fight to get back to the NCAA tournament. The StarTribune looks at their resilience.
Minnesota is off to Stanford for the start of their tournament experience.

At Madison Iowa State faces San Diego, while Northern Iowa gets to play host Wisconsin.

South Dakota State faces defending champ Nebraska. This is how to watch the SDSU game if you aren't there.

Ohio is set to host Purdue.

ACADEMIC ALL AMERICAN
Danielle Meyer of Ohio State and Christa Harmotto of Penn State have been named to ESPN's Academic All-American team.

D2 PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Vicky Braegelmann of UM Duluth (& Albany HS) was named D2 Player of the Year. This is the second year where she has the title. Last year she shared the honor.

D2 TOURNAMENT
Concordia St. Paul was introduced to the press at the D2 tournament.

SIGNINGS
CSP has signed three: Ellie Duffy (Totino-Grace), Taylor Fieldsted (Lakeville North), and Natalie Thomas (Champlin Park).

REVIEWS OF THE YEAR
Wadena-Deer Creek's year is reviewed in the Wadena Pioneer Journal.

Thanks to the readers for the help. If you have news, go to my profile and email me.

next up: tomorrow morning

Big 10 and Big 12 All Conference, D2 All Americans

#1 posting 11.27.2007
your daily dose of girls volleyball news & information

BIG 10 ALL CONFERENCE
The Big 10 has named their all conference team.
For the Gopher Jessy Jones was named to the first team, while freshmen Brooke Dieter and Lauren Gibbemeyer were named to the Freshman squad.

For Illinois Laura DeBruhler was on the Freshman squad.

Ohio State's Danielle Meyer was a unanimous selection to the first team.

Penn State's team had plenty of award winners with Christa Harmatto the Big 10 player of the year, Russ Rose coach of the year, and freshman of the year Arielle Wilson.

Stephanie Lynch from Purdue made the All conference list.

Second place Wisconsin had three players make the All conference list.

Jackie Simpson of Wisconsin picked up the final player of the week honor in the Big 10.

BIG 12
Iowa State's Erin Boeve (Hills-Beaver Creek) was named to the Big 12 all conference squad.

Boeve also continues her blogging with an NCAA tournament edition.

NCAA TOURNAMENT
San Diego is getting ready for the tournament at Madison.

ALL AMERICANS
UM Duluth has four players on the AVCA All American team Vicky Braegelmann was named to the first team for the fourth time. Also teammate Kari Wolford was named to the first squad.
Concordia St. Paul also had four players make the list. Emily Palkert was named D2 Freshman of the year. Maggie McNamara is on the first team.

Erin Contons of SW MN State was named to the first team. From the Marshall Independent.

Ashley Nachreiner of MSU Mankato made 3rd team.

Thanks to the readers for the help. If you have news, go to my profile and email me.

next up: tomorrow.

D3 All Americans, Academics, Beekman

#2 posting 11.14.2007
your daily dose of girls volleyball news & information

ALL AMERICANS
Emma Jaynes of St. Benedict was named honorable mention All American at the D3 level. Here is the AVCA list of D3 All Americans.

BEEKMAN
Amanda Beekman of MSU Mankato made the North Central All Conference team and the Marshall Independent has a feature on the home grown talent.

ACADEMICS
Three UM Duluth players made the academic honor roll: Danielle Beckstrand, Lindsey Clairmont, and Sarah Wyffels.