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LINCOLN — Two weeks ago, inside a sweltering, raucous gym five time zones from home, Hayley Thramer took another step away from her volleyball adolescence.

Nebraska's junior middle blocker was one of the brightest stars in the Huskers' sweep of Hawaii in the spring exhibition opener in Oahu, recording eight kills with one error on 11 swings and adding nine blocks in front of an ear-splitting crowd crammed into War Memorial Gym.

Darren Ivy/NebVolleyball Iowa State's Tenisha Matlock makes a dig at the UNK Spring Volleyball Tournament while fellow Nebraskans Kelsey Petersen (8), Jamie Straube (14), Caitlin Mahoney (7) and Carley Jenson (1) look on.

When the NCAA Div. I Volleyball Tournament gets underway on Thursday and Friday across the country, the state of Nebraska will be well represented on the rosters of the teams that made it.

The home-state University of Nebraska-Lincoln volleyball team boasts eight Nebraska natives on its roster, but there are also at least 14 other native Nebraskans on other team's rosters that made the tournament.

Of these 22 Division I players, they hail for 20 different Nebraska high schools.

2011-2012 NIOBRARA VALLEY CONFERENCE
ALL-CONFERENCE VOLLEYBALL

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Yes, Hayley Thramer grew up in the small Nebraska town of Ewing and played sports.

Like other young girls in the state, Thramer can recall going to watch a Nebraska volleyball match in 1998 when a family friend, Denise Koziol of Norfolk, played for the Huskers.

Papillion-LaVista swept Class B's new top team Lincoln Pius X in in the finals of the Lincoln Northeast Tournament, while former Class B No. 1 Gretna was defeated for the first time this season. Earlier last week, Kearney Catholic was defeated by Grand Island Central Catholic, switching up the rankings in C1. D1 BDS lost to Class C2 Blue Hill, but remains atop in D1 as does Bertrand in D2 and Lutheran High Northeast in C2 in this week’s Oct. 3 NebVolleyball/Jones Insurance Agency, Inc. Rankings for each classification.

Class A
(Ranking, Team, Record, Last Week's ranking)
1. Papillion-LaVista South (21-0) 1
2. Omaha Burke (20-3) 2
3. Grand Island (18-3) 5
4. Bellevue East (14-5 ) 8
5. Omaha Marian (15-7) 3
6. Lincoln Southwest (16-3) 4
7. Papillion-LaVista (12-10) 6
8. Omaha Westside (8-9) 7
9. Lincoln Northeast (13-10) 9
10. Millard West (9-11) 10

Contenders: Omaha Benson, Kearney, Bellevue West, Fremont, Lincoln North Star

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CREIGHTON — The West Holt Huskies won all three matches to claim first place at the Creighton Tournament on Saturday in Creighton.

West Holt defeated Ewing, Creighton and Hartington, with each match requiring a narrow victory.

The third week of the season has come and gone. There were some more shake ups among some of the top teams in the lower classifications while most of the larger schools remained relatively unchanged in the Sept. 19 NebVolleyball/Jones Insurance Agency, Inc. Rankings for each classification.

Class A
(Ranking, Team, Record, Last Week's ranking)
1. Papillion-LaVista South (9-0) 1
2. Omaha Burke (13-2) 2
3. Omaha Marian (10-4) 3
4. Grand Island (14-1) 5
5. Lincoln Southwest (14-2) 4
6. Bellevue East (11-3) 6
7. Papillion-LaVista (6-6) 7
8. Lincoln Northeast (9-6) NR
9. Omaha Benson (12-2) 10
10. Bellevue West (10-9) NR

Contenders: Millard West, Omaha Westside, Millard North, Kearney, Lincoln North Star

There were many big matches during the second week of the high school season that have shook up some of the NebVolleyball/Jones Insurance Agency, Inc. Rankings for each classification.

Class A
(Ranking, Team, Record, Last Week's ranking)
1. Papillion-LaVista South (7-0) 1
2. Omaha Burke (12-1) 3
3. Omaha Marian (5-3) 2
4. Lincoln Southwest (6-1) 4
5. Grand Island (9-0) 7
6. Bellevue East (10-3) 5
7. Papillion-LaVista (4-3) 6
8. Millard West (6-5) 9
9. Lincoln North Star (6-5) 8
10. Omaha Benson (9-2) NR

Darren Ivy/NebVolleyball

One week of the 2011 season is down and there were quite a few big matches right out of the gate that help to reshape the NebVolleyball/Jones Insurance Agency, Inc. Rankings for each classification.

Games to Watch the Week of Sept. 5, 2011.

Volleyball practice kicked off Monday across Nebraska and though the first games of the high school season are still two weeks away, it's time to put the best educated guess together for the NebVolleyball/Jones Insurance Agency, Inc. Preseason Rankings for each classification.

Class A
1. Papillion-LaVista South
2. Omaha Marian
3. Omaha Burke
4. Millard North
5. Papillion-LaVista
6. Lincoln Southwest
7. Bellevue East
8. Lincoln Southeast
9. Grand Island
10. Lincoln Northeast

Class B
1. Lincoln Pius X
2. Grand Island Northwest
3. Bennington
4. Omaha Skutt
5. Elkhorn South
6. Waverly
7. Gretna
8. Seward
9. Elkhorn
10. Aurora