The NAU volleyball team has received national Letters of Intent from three recruits to join the program for the 2012 season, head coach Craig Choate announced.
Payton Bock (Tempe/Hamilton HS), Trianna Henry (Phoenix/Sunnyslope HS), and Janae Vander Ploeg (Colorado Springs, Colo./Cheyenne Mountain HS) have committed to NAU to help replace the loss of three seniors following this season.
"The potential for our three recruits is off the charts," Choate said in a release. "We bring in two players who are four-time state champions and were state playoff MVP's (Henry and Vader Ploeg) and one (Bock) who has tremendous upside as a hitter from the middle blocker position and is up for Player of the Year in the state of Arizona. This is as good a class as we've had here."
Henry and Vander Ploeg come to NAU as outside hitters, while Bock is a 6-foot-3 middle blocker. Henry was a four-year starter and two-year team captain at Sunnyslope, leading her team to four consecutive Arizona state titles and only one loss in league play in four years. She has averaged 3.3 kills per set and 3.8 digs per set along with 42 aces and 36 blocks during her senior season.
Vander Ploeg was a member of the four-time Colorado state champions from Cheyenne Mountain HS, which were the first-four state titles in school history. She was named state championship MVP in both her junior and senior seasons and was named the Denver Post 4A Player of the Year to go with two conference player of the year awards. She averaged 3.8 kills per set and 2.7 digs per set her senior year and also lettered four years in basketball and soccer.
Bock joins the Lumberjacks as a middle blocker, having amassed 30 solo blocks and 60 total blocks as a senior to go with 2.6 kills per set and a .341 hitting percentage. Her Hamilton team went 33-9 this season and finished the year ranked sixth in the Division I power points. The team went 101-27 during her four-year career, while Bock was named one of five players on ESPN's potential Gatorade Player of the Year listings for the state of Arizona and received All-Tournament honors at the Nike Tournament of Champions.
NAU DIVING
The NAU women's diving team, which has swept both diving events in each of its four meets this season, will compete in Tucson this weekend in the Wildcat Diving Invite hosted by Arizona. NAU will be one of 16 schools competing in the event, which includes six Pac-12 teams. The meet begins with 3-meter diving on Friday followed by 1-meter on Saturday and platform on Sunday, the first time this season that NAU will be competing on the platform.
"We've been diving really consistently and we're really excited to be a part of this event," NAU diving coach Nikki Huffman said in a release. "There will be close to 60 women's divers at the event and it should be a great challenge for us. We should be able to step up pretty well like we did last weekend and I expect good things."
Junior Kristy Ardavanis has won seven of the eight events she has competed in this season, sweeping the 1-meter and 3-meter competitions in three of four meets. The only event that Ardavanis didn't win was the 3-meter last Thursday at Colorado State, in which senior Holly Frost got the victory with a career-best score of 298.58. Ardavanis and Frost have each already qualified for the NCAA Zones in both the 1-meter and 3-meter, while freshman Kali Lents also posted a 1-meter qualifying score of 276.15 in the dual at Colorado State. Ardavanis has twice been named the Western Athletic Conference Diver of the Week in as many weeks of competition this season.
The field for the Wildcat Diving Invite will be larger than any other the Lumberjacks will face this season, including the NCAA Zone meet. Huffman noted the additional challenge of having each event take 20 minutes per round based on the large number of entrants, taking up to three hours just from the prelims of each event.
NAU ATHLETICS
Single game tickets for NAU men's and women's basketball at the Rolle Activity Center are now on sale.
To purchase single-game tickets, visit nauathletics.com and follow the links, or call (928) 523-5661. For four-game plans, call 523-3389 and for season tickets, call 523-5353.
Editor's Note: Information in this report was provided by the NAU sports information department.
