FREMONT - Coach Paul Giesselmann has released his 2012 recruiting class for Midland University’s 2012-13 volleyball squad. The Warriors, coming off a 20-win season and their first ever appearance in the GPAC Semifinals, will add an impressive list of 12 new names to next year’s roster, including 10 all-state achievers and nine all-conference athletes.

“We are really happy with our second recruiting class at Midland,”said Paul Giesselmann, Midland University volleyball head coach. “When you combine this class with last year’s group, I believe it sets Midland Volleyball up to be a competitive program for several years. The class has a great mix of a couple players who potentially could help us on the varsity immediately, several players that with a couple years of training will be very strong contributors for us, and a couple players that are going to be great role players that we can plug into several positions.”

Of the 12 athletes, 10 have led their high school volleyball teams to conference championships. Seven recruits hold school records and six have led their teams to top-8 or better state tournament finishes.

Class A
(Ranking, Team, Record, Last Week’s ranking)
1. Papillion-LaVista South (41-0) 1
2. Omaha Marian (34-8) 2
3. Omaha Burke (32-7) 3
4. Lincoln Southwest (29-6) 4
5. Bellevue East (30-10) 6
6. Lincoln Northeast (22-17) NR
7. Grand Island (29-6) 5
8. Papillion-LaVista (17-20) 8
9. Millard West (17-17) 9
10. Omaha Westside (18-17) 7

Contenders: Lincoln North Star, Omaha Benson, Kearney

Sub-districts are officially one week away in the smaller classifications and that means that it is time for conference tournament and final late-season rivalries to finish up and for teams to get ready for postseason play. Below are the updated NebVolleyball.com/Jones Insurance Agency, Inc. rankings for Oct. 24.

Class A
(Ranking, Team, Record, Last Week’s ranking)
1. Papillion-LaVista South (30-0) 1
2. Omaha Marian (24-7) 3
3. Omaha Burke (24-5) 2
4. Lincoln Southwest (26-5) 5
5. Grand Island (25-5) 4
6. Omaha Westside (15-14) 6
7. Bellevue East (24-8) 7
8. Papillion-LaVista (14-17) 8
9. Millard West (12-13) 10
10. Lincoln North Star (14-13)

Contenders: Lincoln Northeast, Omaha Benson, Kearney, Bellevue West

Click to view story in Fremont Tribune.

LINCOLN - Yutan defeated Mead in the finals of the East Central Nebraska Conference tournament 3-0 Saturday at Southeast Community College.

Lexi Egr totaled 10 kills in the championship match. Morgan O'Malley led Yutan with 27 set assists and also led with 10 digs.

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

As the fourth week of the season concludes, team are starting to separate themselves and it is reflected in this week’s Sept. 26 NebVolleyball/Jones Insurance Agency, Inc. Rankings for each classification.

Class A
(Ranking, Team, Record, Last Week's ranking)
1. Papillion-LaVista South (15-0) 1
2. Omaha Burke (18-3) 2
3. Omaha Marian (12-4) 3
4. Lincoln Southwest (15-2) 5
5. Grand Island (17-3) 46.
6. Papillion-LaVista (10-9) 7
7. Omaha Westside (6-4) NR
8. Bellevue East (11-5 ) 6
9. Lincoln Northeast (9-7) 8
10. Millard West (8-11) NR

Contenders: Omaha Benson, Kearney , Bellevue West, Fremont

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

Click to view story on Fremont Tribune

Wahoo Neumann volleyball opponents were well aware of Alyssa Stanek's power as a hitter, but her versatility helped the Cavaliers succeed.

"Alyssa is a great athlete that just wants her team to have success even if all eyes are on her," Neumann coach Shelly Hagemann said. "She would find other ways of putting the ball away in the front row like tipping to the open spot or a roll shot to the corners to keep defenses off-balance. Every team was keying on the hard hit so she just changed her tempo and made the defense move."

Click to view story on Plattsmouth Journal

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.