Silvernail, Lee On Tour For Uspv
Sarah Silvernail and Jaimie Lee are proving there’s life after college volleyball. It’s called United States Pro Volleyball, a newly formed organization based outside Chicago.
Silvernail, a 1996 first-team All-American from Washington State, joined in May. Ferris High School graduate Lee, a 1997 All-America honorable mention from Notre Dame, signed on shortly afterward and the two have been traveling throughout the Midwest this fall playing exhibition matches against Division I schools.
Last Saturday before 2,500 spectators in Naperville, Ill., USPV beat No. 2 Penn State 15-6, 15-6, 15-11, 15-7 to improve to 17-5.
The team lost to Team Canada, ranked seventh in the world, but scored a win against No. 11 Dominican Republic.
Silvernail, a U.S. National team member before leaving the team to start a family, had 13 kills against the Dominicans.
The four-month tour stops this Sunday at Notre Dame, where Lee was named the Fighting Irish’s two-time female athlete of the year. She played both outside hitter and setter in college, but is setting for USPV.
Silvernail, a middle blocker her entire career, may have stumbled upon another career. She and her 1-1/2-year-old daughter, Kahle, are shown in an ad campaign photo for the league with the caption reading “Powerful Women.” The ad is running in newspapers in the Midwest.
Currently the USPV roster includes 19 players. The plan is to launch a six-team Midwest league in January 2001. Silvernail and Lee are under contract until August 2000.
Page, Ross excel
As walk-ons at the University of Washington, Sabrina Page and Elissa Ross are stepping up.
Both from Spokane, they have earned regular spots as defensive specialists and are expected to be in the rotation when the Huskies (6-10, 2-6 Pac-10) play at Washington State (8-8, 2-6) Saturday at 7 p.m.
Page, a 1997 Central Valley graduate who played two years at Community Colleges of Spokane, has played in 48 of 52 games and is averaging 1.52 digs per game. Ross, who graduated from Ferris last spring, has been in 50 games, averaging 1.72 digs per game.
Much like the Cougars, the Huskies are not having one of their better years.
“We haven’t clicked yet,” said the 5-foot-3 Page. “Practices are great and we play great against each other. I don’t know what’s happening in the games.”
The Huskies have won four straight against WSU. Recently, both teams have been losing.
The Huskies have lost five straight conference matches, all by the scores of 3-0. The Cougars, 3-0 winners over Idaho on Tuesday, lost to the same five teams but took two games off Southern California and one off Arizona State.
Spikes and digs
Red-hot Eastern Washington (16-3, 8-1 Big Sky Conference), winner of seven straight, returns home Saturday to play lowly Portland State (2-15, 0-8) in a rare noon match. The Eagles are averaging 1,098 fans per match and have attracted more than 1,000 fans in five of six home matches… . Less than 48 hours after losing to No. 5 Long Beach State, the Vandals (13-6, 4-2) play host to No. 3 Pacific on Saturday. The Tigers were 15-1, 5-1 heading into Thursday night’s match against Boise State… . It won’t get much easier for Gonzaga (4-13, 0-4 West Coast Conference) when the Bulldogs travel to the Los Angeles area to play Loyola Marymount (11-6, 1-2) today and first-place, No. 11 Pepperdine (12-2, 3-0) on Saturday. The Bulldogs then will play host to Eastern on Tuesday… . The WSU-Washington match will be televised on a tape-delayed basis on Fox Sports NW on Monday at 2 p.m.