Eight Nebraska Natives Earn NAIA All-American Honors
Lincoln Southwest graduate Jill Bax of Hastings College – photo courtesy Hastings College With the NAIA season coming to end last weekend, the postseason honors are starting to roll in for former Nebraska high school standouts. Lincoln Southwest graduate Jill…
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Continue ReadingLincoln Southwest graduate Jill Bax of Hastings College – photo courtesy Hastings College
With the NAIA season coming to end last weekend, the postseason honors are starting to roll in for former Nebraska high school standouts.
Lincoln Southwest graduate Jill Bax, a senior libero, and Grand Island Northwest graduate Katie Placke, a senior setter, each earned AVCA 1st-Team All-American Honors for Hastings College. Priscillia O’Dowd, a junior middle hitter from Papillion-LaVista, was named to the 1st Team for Midland University. Bax was also named the 2017 Libero of the Year – the second straight year she has won the award.
Midland junior setter Jess Peters of Papillion-LaVista was named 2nd-Team All American, as was Kearney Catholic graduate Maddie Squires, a setter for Bellevue University. Shayla Scanlan, a junior MB from Plattsmouth, was named 3rd-Team All-American for Bellevue.
Casey Krolikowski, a junior OH for Hastings College from Centura, and Allison Kuenle, a sophomore OH from North Platte for Doane College, were each named Honorable Mention All-Americans.
Both Placke and O’Dowd are repeat 1st-Team selections while Bax was a 2nd-Team selection a year ago.
This season, Bax had 503 digs and finished her career at Hastings with 2,102. She also had a career-high 41 service aces and finished the season with 392 serve receptions. Placke was one of the biggest dual-threat players in the nation during her time at Hastings. She had a career-best 344 kills this year to go along with 601 assists. She also had 232 digs and seven solo blocks and 70 block assists.
O’Dowd has been a dominating force for Midland since she stepped foot on campus. Her 412 kills this season was the third-straight year the junior has recorded more than 400 terminations for the Warriors. She also added a career-best 114 digs this year and had 23 solo blocks to go with 100 block assists.
Peters earned All-American honors for the third time in her career after being a 1st-Team selection last year and a 3rd-Team selection as a freshman. This, however, could have been her best season as she fought through injuries all year but still posted 1,045 assists, 75 kills and 265 digs.
Squires, a sophomore setter, had 1,683 assists for the Bruins while adding 181 kills with 63 service aces and 449 digs. Squires announced earlier this week she is transferring to Division II Nebraska-Kearney.
Scanlon led the Bruins this season with 496 kills while hitting .281. She also had 231 digs and 32 solo blocks.
Krolikowski had 260 kills and 279 digs this year for Hastings while Kuenle finished the season with 418 kills and 366 digs for Doane.