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Cal Bears Libero Juliana Stivanicevic Leaves Volleyball Team
The freshman defensive specialist has voluntarily separated herself from the California volleyball team
BERKELEY – California volleyball freshman defensive specialist Juliana Stivanicevic (Miramonte HS/Moraga, Calif.) informed the coaching staff that she has decided to voluntarily separate from the team, head coach Rich Feller announced on Wednesday, Sept. 22.
“After several meetings with Juliana, we presented her with every option,” said Feller. “In the end, she decided it was best for her to leave the team at this point in time. It was a mutual agreement between the staff and herself and we wish her all the best in all of her future endeavors.”
The Golden Bears (10-0) are on the road this weekend (Sept. 24-26) to open Pac-10 play. Cal faces Arizona in a 7 p.m. PT match on Friday, Sept. 24, at the McKale Center in Tucson, Ariz. After a one-day bye, the Bears take on Arizona State on Sunday, Sept. 26, at the Wells Fargo Arena in Tempe, Ariz. Please visit CalBears.com for more information.
Inspiring Female Volleyball Players: Jennifer Bonilla Provides Illinois' Volleyball Team's Version of the 'Blind Side' Story
by Mike Koon, University of Illinois Sports Information
Freshman Jennifer Bonilla takes over at one of the pivotal positions on a volleyball team, libero, for a school, Illinois, ranked in the top five in the country with Final Four aspirations. Talk about pressure. If you have been through what Bonilla has, however, you’ll have no doubt that she’ll be up for the challenge.
“I can deal with pressure and I’m okay with it because I’ve learned how to deal with a lot of things,” Bonilla said. “There have been so many times that I have had to grow up fast. I knew what I was getting into coming here. I just say ‘Bring it on. This is going to be great.’”
Bonilla’s Tough Road The road to Illinois somewhat resembles the 2009 hit movie The Blind Side, for Bonilla. Coming from humble beginnings, Bonilla found a family willing to take her into their home, got her into volleyball, sent her to an exclusive private school, and helped her realize her dream of going to college. Only this family wasn’t as wealthy as the one in the movie and sacrificed even more to give Bonilla a new life.
Bonilla was born and raised in inner city Los Angeles, a stone’s throw from L.A. High. Her mom, Antonia, emigrated to the United States from El Salvador and worked as a housekeeper six days per week. Her father was never in the picture, so Antonia was left to raise Jennifer by herself. The neighborhood wasn’t safe, so Jennifer spent all her time indoors and with no caretaker at home, Antonia brought Jennifer to work with her.
“It’s rare when you find a child born and raised in that area who says ‘I want to do this and goes on to do it,” Jennifer said. “It’s rare to find opportunities because it’s kind of hard to give your kid that dream.”
Antonia figured a catholic school education would benefit her daughter so she enrolled her at St. Thomas the Apostle, a K-8 school about 10 minutes away, and took Jennifer to there every day on the city bus until she had her first car when Jennifer was in second grade.
A Life -Changing Connection With no father around, Jennifer looked up to her kindergarten teacher, a man named Gustavo Beltran.
“I would call him my dad,” Jennifer remembers. “Being a little kid without having a father, this was a way to fill that void.”
“She was looking for some kind of role model,” Beltran remembered. “She would go outside on the playground and called me her dad. From then on that is the role I took.”
Beltran had a challenging upbringing of his own, being raised in the inner city with four brothers, he wanted to play baseball, but his parents never could afford to take him to play on the traveling teams.
“I told myself that when I get older, if I had a chance to help a child that was a high-risk kid, I will do it,” Beltran said. “So when Jennifer came to me, I decided I’m going to help her. At the time, she hadn’t developed an interest in sports, but I knew that sports was going to be a key.”
Even after kindergarten, Jennifer looked to Beltran for guidance. The school offered basketball, softball and volleyball for girls.
“In the inner city, a lot of parents would use sports as a babysitting service,” Beltran said. “They never really thought their kids were going places.”
Beltran took on the role of volleyball coach for the both the varsity (seventh and eighth grade) and junior varsity (fifth and sixth grade), but didn’t win a game his first season.
“I didn’t know a lot about volleyball,” Beltran remembered. “So I started going to workshops, watching other coaches and video to help get our program off the ground.”
Beltran let Bonilla play junior varsity as a third grader and by the time she got to fourth grade, she had jumped to varsity.
“Jennifer was the only one who would stay behind after practice,” Beltran said. “I could see Jennifer’s potential because she was a good listener. She takes what you tell her and embraces it.”
Beltran teamed with his brother to coach a club team named En Fuego, his brother coaching the 16 and under group with Gustavo taking on the 14 and under team.
Beltran’s life was changing in another way too. He married his wife, Virna, when Bonilla was in fourth grade, and she too played the role of reaching out to Jennifer. Not long after that, the Beltrans had a son, Isaiah.
“He and his wife have big hearts,” Bonilla said. “It’s just something in their nature. They honestly never thought with their heads, but with their hearts. They sacrificed so much in order to help someone who was in no way related to them.”
With Bonilla’s mom working 10-12 hours per day, it was tough for Jennifer to get from to school to volleyball practice to games. With Beltran losing his second job managing a movie theater, it was time to devote more and more attention to Jennifer. At the age of 10, Bonilla played for Beltran’s 14U team and with the Beltrans commuting an hour away from the valley in Reseda, Jennifer began spending more and more time at their home, often spending the night. Gradually Jennifer became part of the Beltran family. To Jennifer, they became parents.
“The only thing going through my mind was ‘I need to get out of here. I need something different for myself.” Bonilla said. “Gustavo and Virna told me this could be the start to something bigger. They took me into their home as their own, and they not only supported me but they gave much more than that: love"
Jennifer played for En Fuego in fifth and sixth grade. The Beltrans built a sand area in their back yard where she could do conditioning and would work with her in the park digging balls.
Emerging on the national scene The real break for Bonilla came as a sixth grader. Beltran had heard about a USA Volleyball try-out in Anaheim and decided to take Jennifer. It was there that Kim Jagd, an assistant coach for UCLA at the time, discovered Bonilla’s potential.
“Jennifer was 11 going on 12, but her skills were still raw,” Beltran recalled. “The first thing that Kim asked was how were Jennifer’s grades. I told her she was a good student. She asked if she would be homesick. I said she would adjust. Two months later we got the call that Jennifer was selected for the first team.”
Bonilla was two years younger than most of the rest of the players on that USA Volleyball High Performance National AI Roster. Current Illini Michelle Bartsch played on that team as did current Washington player Amanda Gill and USC setter Kendall Bateman.
“That opportunity put Jennifer to the next level,” Beltran said. “Kim nurtured her a lot. Because of that her dream school was UCLA.”
In seventh grade, Bonilla began playing a lot of games on the west coast in places like Redondo Beach and Manhattan Beach, areas that are hotbeds for volleyball. For the first time, Jennifer started thinking seriously about scholarships and playing volleyball in college. Jennifer and the Beltrans also began looking at which high school to place Jennifer in following her days at St. Thomas the Apostle.
Beltran took his team to play such schools as St. Paul the Apostle out of Westwood and was exposed to the high schools that were especially strong in volleyball. Near the top of the list was Marymount, an exclusive all-girls college preparatory school of about 400 students. The problem was the school’s $24,600 per year price tag. Marymount offered as much as 80 percent of scholarship money, which only a couple of students received. That still left about $5,000 per year. Fortunately for Bonilla, not only did she qualify for the 80 percent scholarship, but a donor to the school covered the rest.
Marymount was a culture shock for someone from the inner city or even someone from the valley, where Bonilla now spent most of her time. She rode to school with Beltran, who trained Jennifer on the side. Beltran called Jennifer, “a piece of cake to have around the house and an ideal daughter.”
Marymount is located on Sunset Boulevard near the Bel Air Estates and the UCLA campus. Its alumni include the likes of Mia Farrow, Kim Kardashian and Biana Lawson, but few from Bonilla’s background.
“The girls were really nice and welcoming,” Bonilla said. “It was a hard transition, but I adjusted.”
On the court, Bonilla has remained in the USA Volleyball system for the past six years. The sport has taken her to Puerto Rico, to Europe, to Thailand and to Mexico. Most recently, she was the starting libero for the USA Junior National Team as the Americans won gold at the NORCECA Women’s Junior Continental Championships. Two years ago, she was named the best libero at NORCECA Girls Youth Continental Championships, again leading the United States to gold.
For the past two seasons, she has played for Jim Stone on the U.S. team. The former Ohio State head coach believes Bonilla has the potential to be one of the best at her position.
“Certainly Jen has the ability to play at a high level,” Stone said. “She is dedicated to being a good player, is a quick study and is very competitive. The competitive aspect will allow her to be a successful player both within the Big Ten and nationally.”
“Volleyball has opened me up to a lot things that I wouldn’t have known and taken me places that wouldn’t have otherwise gone,” Bonilla said. “Now I have dreams to be in the Olympics some day. It’s something I have been working toward since sixth grade when I first tried out for USA High Performance.”
Leaving for Illinois It was at one the High Performance training sessions during her freshman year, that Bonilla and Illinois head coach Kevin Hambly, a regular evaluator for USA Volleyball, first crossed paths. Bonilla had just made the switch from a hitter to a libero.
“I didn’t know anything about her, just that she was the best libero by far,” Hambly said. “She was an outstanding athlete and her ball control skills for her age were incredible.”
Hambly made an impression on Bonilla, so much so that she asked if she could come to the Illinois volleyball camp prior to training with the USA team in Colorado Springs that summer.
“Gustavo called me and said he wanted to send her to camp because Jennifer liked the way that I coached and did things at High Performance,” Hambly said. “I was excited to have her, but didn’t think much of it.“
“I instantly fell in love with the school,” Bonilla said. “The coaches, the girls, the whole atmosphere is so different.”
Bonilla scheduled an unofficial visit during the fall of her sophomore year, attended a match at Huff Hall and decided that Illinois was the place for her, even over what had once been her dream school, UCLA.
“I’ve been to matches at UCLA and USC,” Bonilla said. “They have nice facilities, the names are good and they get fans, but nothing like this.”
Hambly was working on another impressive recruiting class and still didn’t fully comprehend the seriousness of Bonilla’s interest.
That is until two days later, when he got a call from Beltran.
“Gustavo said ‘Do you not like Jennifer?” Hambly recalled. “I thought she was great and she’d be the number one on our list at libero. I told him that I wanted to make sure she was serious. He said, ‘Kevin, I wouldn’t have flown her out there if she wasn’t.’”
True character revealed It was only after the commitment that Hambly began to really know Jennifer Bonilla and her story.
“As a person, she is one of the more driven people I have ever been around as far as her goals, but she is not in your face about it,” Hambly said. “She plays with aggressiveness, but she’s also driven as a student and as a human being.”
Bonilla is a solid student, planning to major in kinesiology at Illinois, and an avid reader, soaking in all the necessary tools for good character and how to be successful. Her favorite book is A Lifetime of Observations and Reflections On and Off the Court by John Wooden.
Bonilla has never forgotten where she came from, going back to St. Thomas the Apostle regularly to encourage the kids to follow their dreams and set a goal to go to college. She gives them her number and e-mail and has stayed in contact with many of them. She shows them the gold medal she got from the NORCECA games and the jersey she wore.
“Getting to that school is where it all happened,” Bonilla said. “I believe a lot in destiny. Sometimes the kids there think this is as good as it’s going to get. There are kids there that say ‘I want to do what you do’ and I tell them they can. It’s not easy, but I know you can because I did. There are not a lot of Hispanics that succeed in volleyball because it’s such an expensive sport. I hope that by showing them what I’ve done, they will say, ‘I can do it too.’”
Bonilla’s story is what movies are made of. Perhaps no one is more aware of it than Beltran’s son, Isaiah, who is eight turning nine, much like the boy in the Blind Side.
“He wants to know when he is going to get to go through the tunnel at Illinois,” joked Beltran.
This February, Hambly made a home visit to Bonilla. They went to visit her mom in central L.A., to St. Thomas the Apostle School and to Marymount.
“I think what amazed me the most is how humble she is about everything,” Hambly said. “She is the most accomplished libero, yet you’d never know it by talking with her. To see her in all those three very diverse places and to see how she has found a way to fit in at all of those places, her ability to communicate and articulate and how intelligent she is, I was just in awe of how easy it was for her to transition.”
“I have met so many people through the years who have wanted to help me and support me,” Bonilla said. “That is what has pushed me to this point. I have constantly been thinking what’s going to happen at the end of this dream. I’m hoping it’s something great. That’s what I’m working toward.”
“No matter what success she has on the volleyball court, she is going to be successful in life,” Hambly continued. “She is going to be successful because she is driven to be. She’ll get the most out of what she has. What that means, time will tell.”
<LSU Volleyball Team Preview Part 1: Defensive Specialists
BATON ROUGE – LSU volleyball has racked up a 115-38 record to go along with the nation’s 11th best winning percentage and is one of only 20 programs nationally to collect five consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances since 2005.
Under the direction of SEC and AVCA South Coach of the Year Fran Flory, the Tigers took their championship tradition to the next level in 2009, not only claiming the program’s fifth straight SEC Western Division crown but LSU’s first overall SEC title since 1991.
First in a four-part series previewing the upcoming season takes a glance at what LSU fans can expect from the Tigers’ back row this fall.
A key to LSU’s success during its five-year run has been the Tigers ability to play excellent defense and pass well. That trend is expected to continue in 2010 as junior Lauren Waclawczyk quickly established herself as a player worthy of filling the libero position left by two-time All-American Elena Martinez.
Waclawczyk notched 425 digs at a 3.76 per set ratio to rank 10th in the SEC. She provided double-digit digs in 24 of her 31 starts at libero, and her deadly jump serve registered a team-high 33 aces aided by 10 multi-ace efforts.
Returning are sophomores Sam Delahoussaye and Meghan Mannari, who also will compete for time on the back row. Delahoussaye emerged as a strong defensive option and finished fourth on the team with 257 digs with nine of her 11 double-digit dig outings coming in SEC play. Mannari played sparingly during her freshman season but saw most of her action down the stretch after battling back from injury.
Victoria Jacobsen and Brittany Steele, a pair of freshmen, expect to add depth and are looking to make an instant impact on the Tigers’ backcourt defense. Jacobsen made the transition from setter on her high school team where she earned two District MVP honors and two All-State First-Team selections at St. Thomas More in Lafayette. Steele took home back-to-back District Defensive MVP awards and amassed a school-record 860 digs to cap her career at Georgetown High School in Texas.
“The back row is one of the spots where we feel we have a lot of depth and potential,” Flory said. “Our philosophy has always been that the first touch is the most important. Lauren did a great job of taking the reins following Elena last season and there will be opportunities for all five players to be in the mix. This group has outstanding energy, competiveness and the ability to make match-changing plays.”
LSU opens the 2010 season against Pacific, Siena and Texas A&M as part of the Texas A&M Invitational on Friday and Saturday. Season tickets for the defending SEC champions are on-sale now at www.lsutix.net starting at $40 for adults and $25 for youth ages 3-12.
ASU Volleyball Team's Sarah Johnson Looks To Take Sun Devils to New Heights
Senior Sarah Johnson isn’t just the libero on Arizona State University’s
women’s volleyball team, she is also a vital part of the team’s
campaign for an NCAA championship this year, bringing valuable
leadership and experience to the young squad.
“I think few people see, and even less understand, the role SJ plays on
our team,
said Head Coach Jason Watson. “ While she's easily identified as our
libero, her leadership role is less visible. The direction she
provides, the competitive intensity she brings everyday and the drive to
perfect her position - those are the qualities I associate with her.”
This year, Johnson is looking forward to a long run in the NCAA
tournament, thanks to the help of some talented recruits. “Last year we
struggled, and that definitely made me stronger as a player, playing
through the tough times and battling over and over each game. Now that
I’m a senior I have to step up and help the underclassmen realize it
will take a lot of work to get where we want to be,” said Johnson.
Coach Watson is proud of Johnson’s continued improvement on the court.
“She has embraced the competitive nature of our gym and the Pac-10. I
believe we'll see the best from her this coming season. I know that she
wants to ensure she leaves our program better than when she entered.”
Originally for Phoenix, Johnson began playing club volleyball at age 12
before going on to play for Sunnyslope High School where she was a state
champion and named 2nd Team All-Region her senior year. She says she
chose ASU because it gave her the opportunity to play in one of the
biggest conferences in the nation while staying close to home.
The Exercise and Wellness major has lofty goals for herself once her
playing days are over. “I want to go to grad school and start my own
business as a personal trainer for pregnant women. I know a lot of women
who have struggled with weight issues after they had kids, and I want
to help them reach their goals.”
As to what advice she would give to young girls who want to play
volleyball at the collegiate level, Johnson says, “nobody can tear you
down except yourself.”
When not competing for ASU, Johnson enjoys playing sand volleyball and
working out.
Catching Up with LSU Volleyball Team Libero Elena Martinez
Catching Up with Elena Martinez
BATON ROUGE – Former LSU libero Elena Martinez is playing professional volleyball for Llaneras de Toa Baja, the defending champion of the eight-team Puerto Rican Volleyball League. The two-time SEC Defensive Player of the Year and AVCA All-American checked in with LSUsports.net as her team has racked up a 7-1 record and currently is in first place in the league standings.
¡Hola from Puerto Rico! The sun is shining, the wind is blowing and our team is in first place of the league after our 3-0 win over Juncos on Monday night. It was still an exciting match even though we won in three sets. The fans fill the gyms in Puerto Rico rain or shine. Our team knows we're in for a crazy night whether we are home or away. Fans bring cow bells and air horns, even pots and pans to the games trying to make as much noise as possible. The atmosphere reminds me of football games in Death Valley. The fans are feisty, yelling at the refs, distracting opponents and supporting their home team regardless of how they're playing.
After games, we take pictures and sign autographs for fans who ages range from new born to 90. We even had a mother bring her two month old baby down to the court to take pictures with us. It’s an incredible feeling to have such amazing support from our surrounding community.
Our team even has its very own fan club! Every practice, a group of five elderly gentlemen are waiting for us when we get to the gym. They cheer for us, laugh at our goofy mistakes and give advice about our upcoming matches. I even had one of them, Tito, give me a Spanish-English children's dictionary so I could reach my goal of being fluent by the time our season is complete.
Playing for this team reminds me of LSU and our volleyball team in so many ways. The owners of our team are very active and personable. They come to every team event and even bring food for us for when we're done. The coaches are challenging, yet supportive and always available to help. The team is close and loves to have a good time whether that means competing intensely against one another in practice or making fun of each other for a silly comment. We are surrounded by people that not only care about us as players, but people as well.
Other than the shaky cell phone service and lack of crawfish, I can't complain! This experience has been so beneficial already, and we’re only half way through the season. We'll repeat as league champions if we continue to play as well as we have been.
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LSU Volleyball Team Season Preview Part 1: Defensive Specialists
BATON ROUGE – LSU volleyball has dominated the SEC Western Division by racking up four consecutive division championships. The Tigers are 28-2 against its fellow division foes since 2006, including 20 straight wins.
LSU also has accumulated four consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances and posted an impressive 90-31 record during its four-year run. The Tigers .743 winning percentage ranks 14th nationally. With a core of seasoned veterans and a crop of talented newcomers, LSU is more than capable of building on its championship tradition during the 2009 season.
First in a four-part series previewing the upcoming season breaks down what LSU fans can expect from the Tigers’ back row this fall.
With the departure of the reigning two-time SEC Defensive Player of the Year and AVCA All-American defensive specialist Elena Martinez, LSU will undeniably have a hole to fill in one of the most crucial position on the court.
Lauren Waclawczyk along with freshmen Sam Delahoussaye and Meghan Mannari are set to anchor the back row. Waclawczyk saw action in 27 matches accounting for 1.46 digs per set last season, while Delahoussaye and Mannari arrive on the Bayou after extremely decorated prep careers. , volle
“The first touch is the most important and there will be opportunities for all three of them to play,” head coach Fran Flory said. “Lauren did an excellent job alongside Elena last year and we’re excited about the progress she made working extremely hard to improve her defensive range. Meghan does a great job of making the play that seems impossible, while Sam has a steady platform and is the best true passer of the trio.”
LSU has 12 matches scheduled against 2008 NCAA Tournament teams as the Tigers open the season against national runner-up Stanford followed by matches against Denver and host Notre Dame from Aug. 28-30 at the Shamrock Invitational.
Fans are invited to meet the team Saturday as the Tigers hold “Mall Ball” from 1-3 p.m. CT at Centre Court on the first floor of the Mall of Louisiana.
The Fall Sports Pass which costs $50 for adults, $25 for youth also will be on-sale at the mall. The pass features 21 action packed events and results in a 66 percent savings off regular season ticket prices between the volleyball and soccer programs. Fans who purchase a Fall Sports Passreceive an LSU T-Shirt, Visor and Frisbee.
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Freshman libero, Gabi Ailes on Stanford's team is making a spot of her own in the land of giants.
Here's a great story to check out for those who think they are too short to play NCAA Division 1 Womens College volleyball.
It's all about your heart for the game... Check it out Click Womens NCAA Division 1 Volleyball to read more
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Volleyball voices interviews college volleyball UNLV libero Jada Walker
VV: As a team captain how do you give your teammates confidence and how do you get yours?
JW: My confidence comes from my knowledge of the game. I realize that, I know what I’m doing out there. I first see the play in my head and then I try to execute it as I’ve already seen it, that’s how I get my confidence. I give my teammates confidence by telling them “Look you can do this, I know you can do this. Will you serve this ball in for me. Will you hit this ball in for me. Do it for me. So they’ll feel responsible and think Hey I need to get this ball in for Jada because they respect me as their team captain. And I give them their cheers and their praises and let them know when they are doing a good job so they know that they ARE doing a good job and that builds up their confidence.
VV: And you find that helping them not think about themselves, but doing it for you, takes the pressure off of them?
JW: Absolutely. And I feel that if we’re in a situation where all I can do is dig, if someone is getting off the net fast enough to make their dig, then I’ll say look I’ll get “this” ball (in this area) you just make sure you get “that” ball, I’ll take more pressure off of them by taking more balls and more space – that way it relieves them to go and do other parts of their job-be it hitting or blocking with less pressure.
VV: What do you think it takes to be a team leader and captain?
JW: First of all you have to be responsible, and hold yourself accountable and always take the blame, I learned that early, you can’t point the finger you always have to point it at yourself. Once you learn to take responsibility for your own play..then that’s when you are able to change yourself and help your team be better as opposed to saying “you" didn’t play well you have to ask why didn’t "I" play well..What can "I" do to help the team.
VV: Exactly, and did it take a minute to learn that or…
JW: You know I had some really awesome coaches growing up from high school to club.
They really hammered that home..”No Jada, it’s not all about you. You are a leader and these traits that you have they need to be changed" so they kind of worked that into “it’s not about you it’s about the success of the team and how you need to take responsibility" into me alot . So I learned to just say I can take the blame for everything because I have that mentality, and that it’s okay I can take the blame and that helps my team play better as long as I say I got it.
VV:Did you want to name some people who helped you get to that point, who helped you understand that leadership mentality? Do you rememeber any coaches names and where they are? Rachel Behen and Nabil Mardini at the Santa Monica Beach club and Pierce College. When I leave here I will go and coach for him.
VV: Well that leads to my next question..when you finish playing what are your plans?
JW: I really have the itch to coach. I have to give the knowledge that I have of volleyball and use it to help others. Obviously I want to play on the beach since I live in California but I really want to coach. I’m going to be a P.E teacher so I will also probably take on a high school team as well and I’m going to coach club.
VV: Describe a day in the life of a college libero.
JW: Weights are at 7:15 in the morning and then I have to do my practicum so I go to teach at an elementary school and then a middle school, P.E. for four hours, since I am majoring in physical education. Then I go to practice. I work on my serve because it has to be tough as a libero and I do a lot of passing, then I’ll dig our hitters with no block, one block and two blocks, I get different looks at the ball and where it’s coming from. I study and stare down the tendencies of the hitters so I know where the ball is going and position myself to be able to pick it up. Practice is from 1:00 to 3:45pm and after practice I grab some ice I go to class from 4 to 6:45
Then I’m also in the Student Athlete Advisory Committee so I go to a meeting at 7 and my day is over at 8. So it’s a long day and that’s just Monday. For the rest of the week I’m usually done around 7.
VV: Name two things you always try to remember to do when you play defense.
JW: If I get a touch on the play I try to make sure its up and playable. And to just be an animal, have that mentality that NOTHING is going down that I’m going to get anything anywhere-get every ball. You have to be in the zone, that’s what I call it where when I’m warming up I need to be sweating balls, just sweating up getting my body really warm that way I can be ready to move faster and change directions to get to a ball. I like to be sweating and really warm before really big matches...and be prepared.
VV: What new comedy show best describes your freshman year?
a) Unhitched
b) Miss/Guided
c) Aliens in America
d) Curb Your Enthusiasm
JW: Probably Aliens in America, because I was on the staarting team in our second match my freshman year as a defensive specialist, and I felt that the seniors on the court were asking “who is this freshman coming in trying to take our spots?" And I took some spots and me and Brittney kind of got the “attitude” from the seniors, but we deserved to be out there and we were out there so we just tried to keep chugging along and do our part.
VV: If you can pick your own All-Star Dream Team, what teammates would you want to play with?
JW: My two middle blockers would be Mekana Barnes from Colorado State I love how she is so athletic, the other one would be http://aprilsbeachvolleyballblog.typepad.com/volleyball_voices/alexis-krimes-long-beach-.html Alexis Krimes from Long Beach State. Outside hitters would be Maria Aladjova (UNLV) and Kristy Porter of UCLA. My setter would be Melody Nua.
VV:What have you gained in personal growth in the four years you’ve been a college athlete.
JW: How to prioritize what matters and what doesn’t matter. I’ve gained so many life lessons and I’ve learned alot.
NCAA Womens Volleyball Libero Breaks 21 Year Old Record
I had to include this article about a Libero breaking an NCAA record becasue you don't hear of that happening too often. Then when you read that she had 62 digs...that sounds like somehting that would maybe happen in a beach game....was she playing by herself in the back court? Any beach players looking for rookie partners to break in? Check this out...
Jessica Strama Sets New NCAA Dig Record For Five Game Match
Breaks 21 Year Old Record
Oct. 16, 2006
LAKE CHARLES-- McNeese State's starting libero, Jessica Strama set a new NCAA dig record for a five game match over the weekend in a Southland Conference volleyball match against Texas-Arlington.
The native of Lemont, IL. was credited with 62 digs in a 3-2 loss at Texas-Arlington on Friday, Oct. 13. The old record of 58 was held by Tanya Champagne of Northwestern State in a match against Nicholls State on Nov. 1, 1985. The 62 digs is also a new McNeese single match dig record of 49 held by Margaret Haydel in a match against UL-Lafayette in 1986. The 62 digs is also Strama's career high.
Strama has recorded double figure digs in 16 of 18 matches this season for the Cowgirls. Her previous match high this season was 35 against Lamar at the Kathy Trosclair Memorial Invitational in New Orleans earlier this season.
