Now that the crowning of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Champion has taken place right here in our city, the attention in college sports turns to volleyball where a new champion will emerge this week. Not many people realize that several former Indiana high school volleyball players are making an impact at the sports’ highest college level. For years Indiana has been known for producing top volleyball talent.
Of all the teams still involved in the NCAA Women’s tournament final four (Wisconsin, Texas, Washington, and Kentucky), three players are from Indiana.
On the left side of the bracket, Wisconsin has two players representing the Hoosier state:
MJ Hammill
Hammill comes from Center Grove High School, where she was first-team all state three times, and even ranked #30 by PrepVolleyball. The freshman has 46 career assists, and many more to look forward to during her years at Wisconsin.
Julia Wohlert
Wohlert hasn’t seen too much action so far, but at Decatur Central, she was ranked #47 by PrepVolleyball and averaged 3.1 kills per game.
On the other side of the bracket, Kentucky is the only school with a player from our state:
Alli Stumler
The junior currently has an average hitting percentage of .338. Stumler is from Floyds Knobs, Indiana and attended the Christian Academy of Indiana. Back in high school, Stumler was a four-time Indiana All-State player and won a state championship back in 2015.
The representation of Indiana doesn’t stop there; of the 60 schools eliminated earlier in the tournament there were 35 players from Indiana on the rosters. While we all might have our own separate teams that we cheer for, you can’t help but to hope a player from Indiana is lifting up the championship trophy.
The Final Four in the Women’s Volleyball Tournament serves up this Thursday, with the National Championship being decided on Saturday.
Christian Oates is a reporter with NextGen Sports. Contact him at info@thenxgen.org
