Former Panther Olgard honored
Alexis Olgard, a senior middle blocker on the Southern California volleyball team from Mead, was named to the All-Pac-12 first team, her third all-conference honor in four years.
She received honorable mention as a junior and was a member of the Pac-12 All-Freshman team in 2010.
Olgard ranks third in the Pac-12, and 10th in the country, for hitting percentage at .430 and is fifth in the conference for blocks per set at 1.28. She is also third on the team with 2.50 kills per set.
Olgard, who posted career marks in several statistical categories this season, was chosen to the Marquette Challenge all-tournament team and was the Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Week Oct. 7 when she had 24 kills on 39 attempts with just one error for a .590 hitting percentage.
Basketball
There were 931 participants in the Greater Spokane Elks Lodge 228 annual Hoop Shoot free-throw contest on Saturday at Valley Christian High School.
The age-division results:
8-9: Boys - Bowen Phelps, first; Isaac Richardson, second. Girls - Corinne Westby, first; Savannah Hirschberger, second.
10-11: Boys - Brian Caldera, first; Andrew Monson, second. Girls - Chloe Williams, first; Mckenna Cottrell, second.
12-13: Boys - Calleb Ohler, first. Girls: Elli Boni, first; Anika Chalich, second.
Age-group winners advance to the district championships in Moses Lake on Jan. 11.
• The Shadle Park boys program, in conjunction with the Rypien Foundation, will conduct its annual alumni game on Dec. 28 at the school.
Doors will open at 9 a.m. with the game to begin at 1. All proceeds will go to the Rypien Foundation, started by Shadle alum Mark Rypien in memory of his son Andrew, who died at age 3 from childhood cancer. The foundation provides financial support for area families battling the disease.
Interested Shadle alums should contact boys basketball coach Tim Gaebe at (509) 354-6783 or timg@spokaneschools.org.
College scene
Keidane McAlpine, the Washington State soccer coach, and three of his players have picked up more postseason honors.
For the third time in 2013, the Cougars’ second-year coach received a coach-of-the-year honor, this one for the Pacific Region by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America. Last month, McAlpine was named the Pac-12 Coach of the Year, a first for Washington State women’s soccer, and was Madness Women’s Soccer Pac-12 Coach of the Year after WSU had a 14-3-4 mark, tying the school record for victories.
Cougars Micaela Castain, Rachael Doyle and Nicole Setterlund were NSCAA all-region selections. Castain was named to the NSCAA/Continental Tire NCAA Division I Women’s All-Pacific Region first team while Doyle and Setterlund were on the second team.
Doyle, a senior defender, and Setterlund, a junior midfielder, were both selected to the All-Pac-12 second team last month.
• Jenni White, a Western Washington junior guard from East Valley, was named to the all-tournament team as the Vikings women’s basketball team won its own Lynda Goodrich Classic last weekend. White had 17 points and 11 rebounds in the tournament and a game-high six assists in the 83-44 championship-game win over Northwest University.
• Cooper Kupp , a redshirt freshman football player, and sophomore volleyball player Allie Schumacher have been selected by the Eastern Washington athletic department as its December Scholar-Athletes of the Month based on their performances in November.
Kupp, an exercise science major with a 3.1 grade-point average from Davis of Yakima, was named the Big Sky Freshman of the Year and was a unanimous first-team All-Big Sky selection after leading the FCS with 18 touchdown catches this season. In November, he caught 33 passes for 601 yards and seven touchdowns.
Schumacher, from Puyallup, is an English major with a 3.2 grade-point average. She earned All-Big Sky honorable mention honors this season, averaging a team-best 2.72 kills per set. She led the Eagles to three wins in November, recording a pair of double-doubles.
Letter of intent
Lewis-Clark State women’s basketball: Brittany Tackett, Coeur d’Alene High School, 6-foot-1 forward, who is averaging close to 14 points per game for the 2013-14 Vikings.