Thursday, February 10, 2011

Valparaiso has been chosen as the Collegiate Volleyball Update (CVU.com) 2010 Deep Digging Team of the Year after a 2010 campaign in which the Crusaders stood out all across the back line.

Valpo racked up a total of 2,447 total digs on the season to lead the NCAA, a tally which ranked second in Crusader history for a single season.  The Crusaders’ average of 18.82 digs/set was good for fourth nationally, while the squad dug 57.6% of available attacks.  Valpo also was solid on serve receive, committing less than one reception error per set for the season.

The Crusader effort on the back line was paced by sophomore Taylor Root (Jenison, Mich./Jenison), who was named the Horizon League Defensive Player of the Year after setting new single-season school and league records for digs and leading the nation in digs/set with 5.94.  Four other Crusaders posted at least two digs/set, led by 2.91/set from freshman Sarah Dooms (Greenwood, Ind./Center Grove).

Junior Jenny Pokorny (Geneva, Ill./Geneva) tallied 2.78 digs/set, while fifth-year senior Val Bollenbacher (Bremen, Ind./Bremen) averaged 2.39 digs/set.  Senior Andrea Balsis (Benton Harbor, Mich./Coloma) also chipped in on the back line with 2.14 digs/set.