KANSAS CITY, MO. - Defending USAV National champion Nebraska Juniors 17-1 punched its ticket to the 2011 tournament in Atlanta with a first-place finish in the 17 Open Division of the Show-Me Qualifier in Kansas City that concluded on Monday.

The Juniors, who are coached by NU's Lindsay Wischmeier, survived a pair of three-set matches in tournament play Monday before sweeping Invasion 17 Black 25-21, 25-16 in the finals.

To start the day, the Juniors, who include NU recruits Amber and Kadie Rolfzen and Kelly Hunter of Papillion-LaVista South and Lauren Sieckmann of Omaha Marian, along with Cassie Effken, Scarlett Howerter, Lauren Smith, Lea Sack and Alison Zastrow of Lincoln Pius X, Megan Stroyek and Lauren Poulicek of Papillion-LaVista South, and Natalie Minchow of Louisville, defeated Miz LB 17 Rockstar 19-25, 25-17, 15-13. The Juniors followed that win up with a 25-20, 23-25, 15-11 victory over ASICS MAVS 17 Blue.

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LOUISVILLE – Cass County students were named to All-East Central Nebraska Conference volleyball teams earlier this week during a meeting of league athletic directors and coaches.

Four Elmwood-Murdock players, three Louisville athletes, three Weeping Water players and two Conestoga athletes were named to either first-team, second-team, third-team or honorable mention squads. Elmwood-Murdock junior Megan Schmale and Louisville junior Natalie Minchow were both on the first team and Elmwood-Murdock senior Erika Stubbendeck was on the second team. Weeping Water senior Kylee Schreiner was a third-team selection.

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LOUISVILLE – One of Louisville's favorite team-building exercises during the preseason consisted of filling buckets with pieces of paper containing positive words like attitude, team, character, inspiration and success.

The Lions hope to make those positive thoughts come true this volleyball season by earning a bucketful of victories over the course of the year.

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2011 Nebraska high school volleyball team capsules, complete with coaching information, returning starters, team outlook and more.

CLASS A

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2010 Nebraska high school volleyball team capsules, with coaching information, returning starters and a season outlook:

CLASS A

ECNC All Conference Volleyball Selection 2011
First Team:
1. Megan Schmale (E-M)
2. Natalie Minchow (Louisville)
3. Lexi Egr (Yutan)
4. Katie Thomas (Yutan)
5. Alex Brockhaus (Malcolm)
6. Hannah Justesen (E-M)
7. Makenzie Reynoldson (Palmyra)

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Class C-1

Rank Team 2010 record Returning starters
1. Kearney Catholic 28-4 4
2. Columbus Scotus 22-7 2
3. Grand Island CC 35-0 2
4. Minden 25-5 3
5. Ogallala 29-7 4
6. Sandy Creek 29-4 3
7. Fillmore Central 24-8 6
8. Wisner-Pilger 30-5 5
9. Concordia 22-9 5
10. St. Paul 20-10 5

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LOUISVILLE – Ashland-Greenwood used a wave of aces to splash past Louisville’s volleyball team in front of a large LHS crowd Thursday night.

Ashland-Greenwood recorded 15 aces and kept Louisville’s passing game off balance all evening in a 25-16, 25-15, 25-20 road victory. The Bluejays (7-2) had six aces in game one, five in game two and four in game three. A-G’s only losses this year have come to Norris and Lincoln Lutheran. Those teams own a combined 17-2 record.

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The USA Girls' Junior National Volleyball Championships were held earlier this month in Reno NV and Natalie played on the team that won the 16-and-under USA Volleyball National Championship. Natalie's team, the Nebraska Juniors 16s, was only the second in Nebraska history to be Open Division National Champions.

Competitive tryouts for the team were held in November of last year, among the top volleyball players in the region. Natalie felt that it was an honor just to be chosen for the team as most of the players came from the premier class A and class B volleyball programs.
The first practices started in January, and from the very beginning the team made winning the National Championship their goal for the season. Achieving that goal meant a lot of hard work training with their coaches, Lindsay Wischmeier-Peterson, a former Husker player, who is now the director of volleyball operations for the University of Nebraska; and Annie Rice, a former UNO player.

Julianne Drelicharz signed a letter of intent to play volleyball for the Warriors.

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