|
Women's Volleyball
Looking to regain her form after being limited most of last season by a knee injury suffered in the spring of 1998 ... imposing player who is counted on for consistent production in the middle ... earned all-district and first team all-BIG EAST honors in ?97 ... can change the complexion of a match with imposing presence and powerful swing ... combines physical strength with great work ethic ... some of her top matches have come against ranked opponents ... love for the game comes through in her on-court persona ... owns 11 career matches with .500-plus hitting, 21 with .400-plus, 34 with .300-plus and just eight below .100 (min. 4 att./gm) ... has improved her backrow play ... owns a tough dipping serve ... third-tallest player in Notre Dame history ... competed against her sister Emily on October 22, 1997, when Notre Dame won at Houston (3-2) ... her former Tampa Bay Juniors club coach Jackie Haydel is in her second year as head women?s volleyball coach at Boston College ... played for the Notre Dame women?s basketball team in ?97-?98 ... one of six former Volleyball Magazine Fab-50 selections on the current Irish roster ... also one of three Volleyball Magazine prep All-Americans on the roster. IN THE IRISH RECORD BOOK: Her .280 career hitting trails only Lindsay Treadwell (.293) and Zanette Bennett (.289) on the Notre Dame career hitting efficiency list ... tallied her 401st career block against Georgetown in the 1998 BIG EAST Championships to become sixth Irish player to surpass 400 ... her career block average (1.34/gm) trails only Mary Kay Waller?s 1.68 (from ?85-?88) in the Irish record book ... her 160 blocks in ?96 are most ever by a Notre Dame freshman and fifth-most in Irish history ... Waller and current Irish assistant Jessica Fiebelkorn-Kerr are the only other Notre Dame players ever to reach 160 blocks in a season (Waller did so as sophomore, junior and senior, while Fiebelkorn had 186 blocks her junior year) ... her 144 blocks in 1997 stands 11th on the Irish single-season list ... also has posted the fifth and ninth-best season block averages in Irish history (1.43 in ?96, 1.26 in ?97) ... her .311 hitting in ?97 ranks fifth all-time at Notre Dame ... her .515 hitting versus Illinois State on October 7, 1997 (19 kills, 2 errors, 33 att.) ranks fourth all-time among Irish players in a five-game match. AS A JUNIOR: A preseason all-BIG EAST first-team selection for ?98 ... sat out first five games of the season still recovering from knee surgery ... made first appearance against New Hampshire at the Michigan State tournament on September 18 ... entered the New Hampshire match in the second game with the score tied at 10-10, and proceeded to break the tie on her very first play with a kill on a set by Denise Boylan ... went on to record five kills, a dig and three blocks in the New Hampshire match ... real ?coming-out? came against Rutgers (10/4) when she had a team high 14 kills on .565 hitting to go along with eight blocks ... took at least 20 swings in six of the next 10 matches ... had double-digit kills in back-to-back matches versus Fairfield and Duke ... averaged 4.33 kills/game against Duke, while getting a season-high four solo blocks and five block assists ... got back into double-digit kills with 11 against former club coach Jackie Haydel?s Boston College Eagles ... had a season-high six digs versus Syracuse on Halloween night ... also added three service aces against the Orangewomen ... tallied at least eight total blocks in six matches in ?98, including against Georgetown in the finals of the BIG EAST Tournament where she had a solo block and seven assists in the three-game match ... had five kills on 19 attempts with two digs and six blocks in the first round of the NCAAs against Eastern Washington. AS A SOPHOMORE: One of four Irish players named all-district in ?97 ... named first team all-BIG EAST, with her .410 hitting ranking second in the BIG EAST behind teammate Jaimie Lee (.451) ... led Irish with .311 overall hitting, ranking third in BIG EAST and fifth all-time at Notre Dame ... appeared in 33 of 34 matches and 114 of 119 possible games (the Irish elected to rest her at Seton Hall) ... led Irish and ranked third in BIG EAST with 1.26 blocks/gm ... third on team with 2.87 kills/gm, fourth with 21 aces ... hit over .300 in 18 matches, including 11 above .400 and four above .500 (min. 4 att./gm) ... hit below .100 only once (.000 versus Wisconsin) ... her huge .515 hitting night (19 kills, 2 errors, 33 att.) pushed Irish past Illinois State in five games while ranking as one of the top five-game hitting efforts in Irish history ... also had career-best four aces in that 3-2 comeback win ... matched her career high with 12 blocks (plus 16 kills) in 3-2 win at Houston, where she faced her sister Emily ... totaled career-best 21 kills and just five errors on 36 swings versus #5 UC Santa Barbara (.444) ... had eight kills on .357 hitting versus Liberty in NCAAs, adding 15 kills (.205) the next day in win over #18 Arkansas ... also had seven digs, eight blocks and two timely aces in that win over the host Lady Razorbacks ... appeared in 13 games as a backup center on the Irish women?s basketball team, totaling 20 points, 10 rebounds, three blocked shots and two steals. AS A FRESHMAN: Named to ?96 BIG EAST all-rookie team ... earned all-tournament at Shamrock Invitational and Big Four Classic ... appeared in 33 of 34 matches (112 of 119 games) ... combined with 6-5 Jen Rouse as tallest pair of middles in Irish history ... ranked 28th in the nation with 1.43 blocks/gm, fifth in Irish history and second-best ever by an Irish freshman (Waller averaged 1.66 in ?85) ... finished behind Syracuse?s Stephanie Schlink (1.44/gm) atop BIG EAST block charts ... her 160 blocks (18 solos) rank fifth all-time at Notre Dame, besting Waller?s freshman record (144) ... second on team with 278 kills (2.48/gm) and .272 hitting ... served 18 aces in limited backrow play ... her 89 digs included season-high 12 against #5 Penn State ... led Irish in blocks 19 times ... paced team in hitting 10 times ... posted five-plus blocks in nine matches, eight-plus six times ...had 14 matches with 10-plus kills ... hit .300-plus 13 times, .400-plus nine times, .500-plus six times and below .100 just five times (min. 4 att./gm) ... named BIG EAST Rookie of the Week (September 2) after 28 kills (.400 hitting), nine blocks and four aces in three wins ... totaled 27 kills (.274 hitting), 24 blocks and 17 digs in Big Four Classic ... had many top efforts against ranked teams ... hit .348 versus #2 Stanford (10 kills, 5 blocks) ... her season-best 12 blocks (one solo) against #19 Louisville were most by an Irish player since ?93 ... averaged .250 hitting (.250-plus seven times), 2.18 kills/gm and 1.62 blocks/gm in nine matches versus ranked teams ... 11 of her 14 double-digit kill matches came in first 17 matches ... hit .692 against Boston College (9 kills, 0 errors, 13 att.) ... named BIG EAST Rookie of the Week on November 4 (16 kills, 9 blocks in wins over Pittsburgh and Syracuse ... equaled season best with 12 blocks (two solo) in NCAA loss to #12 Ohio State. PREP & PERSONAL: A three-sport athlete at Berkeley Prep ... a ?95-?96 USVBA first-team All-American and Mizuno second-team All-American ... one of 12 Volleyball magazine All-Americans and member of its Fab 50 ... named Gatorade player of the year for 11-state South region ... played in Mizuno national all-star game ... state player of year as a senior ... led team to state title as a sophomore and senior and top-10 USA Today national ranking her senior year ... four times all-county, three times all-conference and three times all-state ... volleyball team MVP as a senior ... four times all-tournament at Junior Olympic qualifying ... led Tampa Juniors to second place at ?96 Junior Olympics ... named Berkeley female athlete of the year as a junior ... attended Plant High School as a freshman, where she teamed with her sister Emily (who played at Houston from ?94-?97) ... joined current Irish sophomore Denise Boylan on U.S. youth national team that competed in Slovakia (summer of ?95) ... a ?92 USVBA All-American ... four times all-conference, all-county in basketball ... twice basketball team MVP and all-state ... all-conference in track and field as a sophomore and junior, competing in the high jump, discus and shot put ... fifth in state discus as a sophomore, third as a junior ... second in state shot put as a junior ... captained track and field team as a junior ... track MVP as sophomore and junior ... member of National Honor Society ... father David played football at Vanderbilt and was member of Oakland Raiders practice squad ... born August 16, 1978, in Pasadena, Calif. ... daughter of David and Sherry Leffers ... full name is Mary Welch Leffers ... considering a career in the Peace Corps ... enrolled in the College of Business Administration, with double major in accounting and French. |
    
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
