UI Recruits Boast Size And Ability Volleyball Team Adds Four, Including Sandpoint Star
Why change now?
After winning four consecutive Big Sky Conference Tournament volleyball titles, the University of Idaho went with a proven formula in its 1996 recruiting class.
“We got what we wanted,” UI coach Tom Hilbert said, “size and athletic ability.”
Idaho, which is leaving the Big Sky for the highly competitive Big West Conference next season, landed four players on Wednesday, including the previously reported signing of Sandpoint High’s Alli Nieman.
Nieman, a 6-foot middle hitter, led Sandpoint to a pair of state titles in her sterling four-year career. She’ll also play basketball at UI.
“She potentially could play anywhere in the country,” Hilbert said. “She has an arm like a cannon, she’s strong, fast and competes.
“She competes like crazy.”
Other newcomers are Walla Walla High’s Katie Kress, Hermiston (Ore.) High’s Anna Reznicek and Sally Powers, from Niobrara County High (Lusk, Wyo.).
Hilbert said Reznicek, a 6-0 setter/outside hitter, might have the most immediate impact next season, possibly as a right-side hitter.
The 5-11 Kress, a middle blocker at Walla Walla and the Big Nine Conference’s most valuable player, probably will play outside hitter at Idaho.
Powers, a 6-1 middle blocker, is a “diamond in the rough,” Hilbert said. “She is very raw and will redshirt in 1996.”
Hilbert said Idaho’s move to the Big West seemed to aid recruiting.
“I think our reputation and our move to the Big West makes us more attractive,” he said. “This is the most athletic class we have signed since Brittany Van Haverbeke and Mindy Rice.”
EWU volleyball
Mount Vernon High School standout Stephanie Dahlstedt, who had 555 kills as a senior, has signed a letter-of-intent to play volleyball and attend Eastern Washington University next fall.
Dahlstedt was a three-time All-Northwest AA League selection as she led her team to the State Class AA Tournament three times. A 6-foot outside hitter/ middle blocker, she averaged 7.6 kills per game this past season for a total of 555 in 73 games.
, DataTimes