Northwestern women's volleyball is ranked in the top-25 for the first time since 1987.
One of five Big Ten teams ranked,the Wildcats have rolled with local products Stephanie Holthus, Elyse Glab and Julie Chin.).
This will be a big weekend as NU plays at Wisconsin (where it hasn't won since 1985) and at No. 7 Illinois.
From NU sports information ...
Northwestern head women's lacrosse coach Kelly Amonte Hiller announced the hiring of Hillary Fratzke as an assistant coach.
"We could not be more excited to welcome Hillary into the Wildcat family," Amonte Hiller said. "She had a tremendous career at Towson University and established herself as one of the premier lacrosse players nationally. In the process, she received both her undergraduate
and masters degrees at Towson. She will be a great mentor to our players on and off the field."
Fratzke brings with her an impressive collegiate playing résumé, being named an IWLCA All-American three times, making her the first player in Towson history to accomplish the feat. A starter since her freshman season for the Tigers, Fratzke was a two-time Tewaaraton Trophy nominee as well as the two-time Colonial Athletic Association Player of the Year (2008 and 2010), while earning four All-CAA honors.
A native of Centreville, Md., Fratzke played in 72 games for Towson with 70 starts. She tallied 199 goals and 63 assists during her career, both of which rank third all-time in program history, and her 262 points is second in the Tiger record book. Fratzke also sits atop the Towson
career leaders in ground balls (193), draw controls (327) and caused turnovers (144).
Fratzke helped lead Towson to back-to-back CAA titles in 2008 and 2009 as the Tigers qualified for the NCAA tournament three-straight seasons from 2008-10. She was honored in 2010 by being named to the Colonial Athletic Association's 25th-Anniversary Team.
Fratzke proved to be a consistent threat for Towson, recording a point in 70-consecutive games while notching a goal in 64-straight contests, the second-longest streak in NCAA history. As a junior, she netted a career-best 62 goals and 24 assists, en route to being named a first team IWLCA All-American, the CAA Player of the Year and a Tewaaraton Trophy nominee.
A CAA Scholar-Athlete and the 2010 Towson Scholar-Athlete of the Year, Fratzke graduated from Towson with a master's degree in biology after attaining her bachelor's degree in the same field.
From a Red Stars release ...
Women's Professional Soccer has
conditionally approved a team from Western New York as its eighth WPS
franchise this past week during a vote by its Board of Governors, WPS
announced on Friday two days before its 2010 WPS Championship presented
by Citi culminates the 2010 season. The Western New York team, owned by
Joe Sahlen, will be based at Sahlen Sports Park, in Elma, New York, a
suburb of Buffalo. The team's home games will be split between
Rochester, New York, at the 14,000-seat Rochester Rhinos Stadium and the
newly-expanded Niagara Field on the campus of Niagara University in
Lewiston, New York, giving WPS six soccer-specific stadiums among its
eight teams.
"The league is proud to announce an eighth franchise for the 2011 WPS
Season that will play in Western New York," said incoming WPS CEO,
Anne-Marie Eileraas. "The Western New York region has a tremendous
soccer tradition and the existing infrastructure of the Flash
organization will provide a great foundation for this team to flourish
in WPS."
The U.S. Army will be in Oak Park on Sept 29 to select a deserving young woman to be a part of the 2011 U.S. Army All-American Bowl as a member of the U.S. Army All-American Marching Band. This selection is a great honor - only 125 high school musicians and color guard members are selected each year.
With her selection, Becca Pearce from Oak Park and River Forest High School becomes a member of a select group of All-American band members that, over the years, have gone on to perform in college marching bands and elite drum corps, as well as several that have gone on to serve in the U.S. Army.
In girls basketball, Samantha Logic of Racine, Wisconsin, rated among the top 10 seniors in the nation by some analysts, has committed to Iowa.
The 5-11 guard, who played with a Chicago-based club team this summer picked Iowa over finalists Marquette,
Stanford and Vanderbilt.
From Northwestern Sports Information:
Senior point guard Michael "Juice" Thompson scored 38 points and the
Northwestern men's basketball team netted the first nine points of the overtime
period as the Wildcats defeated Fastweb Casale Monferrato Saturday evening. John Shurna added 26 points and Drew Crawford chipped in
with 22 as NU improved to 3-0 on its Italian tour.
From NU Sports Information's Nick Brilowski
John Shurna scored 27 points, including shooting a perfect 7-for-7 from 3-point
range, as the Northwestern men's basketball team improved to 2-0 on its Italy tour
with a 89-74 win over Ligomatic Perugia in Perugia, Italy, on Wednesday. Michael
Thompson added 22 points for the Wildcats.
The Wildcats' next contest is Saturday against Fastweb Casale Monferrato at 1:30
p.m. CT Saturday.
The Chicago Red Stars of Women's Professional
Soccer announced that forward Ella Masar will miss the team's final two
regular-season matches. Masar
elected to have septum surgery early last week Red Stars Head Coach
Omid Namazi said that Masar is not at 100 percent.
