Three Broncos Named to All-WCC Volleyball Teams

Posted: Nov 24, 2010

Santa Clara, Calif. – Three Bronco volleyball players were named to the West Conference all-conference teams on Wednesday, including junior Tanya Schmidt, who was named to the All-WCC First Team. It is the 13th year in a row Santa Clara has had at least one person on the All-WCC First Team. Sophomores Dana Knudsen and Kaleigh Durket were both named to the WCC Honorable Mention list.

Bronco head coach Jon Wallace is happy for all three players as well as being excited for their return next year. In addition to the trio, the future of the Bronco volleyball team is very bright with the return in 2011 of another trio of terrific volleyball players: junior Kayla Lommori, sophomore-redshirt Katherine Douglas and sophomore Megan Anders. "We are excited for the growth of this team in the next year. They are motivated and excited about the possibilities of next season already," said Wallace. "All of these players have gotten a lot of experience early in their careers. With that type of experience we should be a team to be reckoned with next year. We like the direction we are headed, but we know that it will take a lot of hard work and dedication from everyone in our program to get back to winning conference titles."

Schmidt led the team in hitting at .338. She knocked down 2.24 kpg and collected .75 bpg, second best on the team. She also picked up .58 dpg. Schmidt scored double-digit kills in 10 matches and hit .400 or better 12 times this season.

Schmidt was also the only player from the WCC to be named to the ESPN.com CoSIDA All-American All-District team, carrying a 3.965 grade point average in English.

"Tanya was very consistent. She approached playing volleyball like a professional, working to get better every night out. We saw more and more teams trying to scheme against her later in the year and she continued to show a lot of growth and improvement," said Wallace. "She always approached the game in a great manner with a terrific, competitive attitude."

Knudsen was second on the team in hitting at .321. She was third on the team with 2.72 kpg and led the team with .95 bpg. Knudsen collected .30 dpg. She had double-digit kills in 12 matches and she hit .375+ in 12 matches. She also had 10 matches with 5+ blocks.

Knudsen was the WCC Player of the Week Sept. 14 after she hit a combined .527 as the Broncos posted a 2-1 record at the Santa Clara Invitational. Knudsen hit an impressive .600 (11-2-15) in the tournament-opening win against Portland State; and really shined in the final match against Cal State Bakersfield where she hit .688 with 11 kills on 16 swings with no errors. For the weekend, she had 35 kills and just six hitting errors to go along with 10 blocks.

"Dana is a big hitter that coming out pre-season everyone was trying to stop. That opened up her teammates and she played injured quite a bit of the second half and still maintained good numbers," said Wallace. "Dana loves the game of volleyball and will continue to get better this winter into the spring as we begin play for 2011."

Durket, a transfer from Colgate, collected a team-high 341 kills, knocking down a second-best 3.34 kpg. Durket also picked up 1.76 dpg with .53 bpg. Durket hit .400+ eight times and double-digit kills 20 times. She also had five matches with double-digit digs.

After being named to the Fresno State Classic All-Tournament team after helping her team to a 2-1 record by posting back-to-back matches with 20+ kills in the Broncos' last two matches, was named the West Coast Conference Player of the Week Aug. 29. Durket posted 20 kills and a .655 clip against Fresno State and followed that performance later in the day with 21 kills and a .472 attack percentage against UC Riverside. She also put together 26 digs on the weekend.

"Kaleigh's story is that she just gets kills. She has a great knack of getting kills and has proven that all year long for us. In 20 of 28 matches she had double-digit kills and hit for a high percentage," said Wallace. "Kaleigh is motivated to be better next year. She will continue to mature and we hope that means even more improvement as a volleyball player."

2010 WCC Honors

All-WCC First Team

Lauren Corp, SMC

Amy DeGroot, USD

Chloe Ferrari, USD

Lilla Frederick, PEP

Kim Hill, PEP

Gabby Jolly, SMC

Kapua Kamana'o, SMC

Shannon Lowell, SMC

Kelsi Myers, USD

Jasmine Rankins, LMU