Published: Sept. 13, 2014 (A1)
Volleyball standouts come home for Marquette Invitational
By NICHOLAS DETTMANN
Daily News
MILWAUKEE — Sara Blasier’s 75-minute anatomy class seemed
like it would never end, especially at 8 a.m.
It was hard to concentrate.
When class ended, it felt like three or four hours passed.
“For the last 15 minutes, I kept looking at the clock and I
just wanted to go,” Blasier said.
The redshirt sophomore on Rice University’s volleyball team
was ready to go home. For the first time in her collegiate volleyball career,
Blasier, a 2012 Slinger graduate, played a match in her home state.
It was a homecoming a year in the making. Despite the wait,
she wasn’t nervous.
Rice, which is in Houston, was at the Marquette University
Invitational along with Marquette, James Madison University, University of
Wisconsin-Green Bay and University of Texas-San Antonio. The invitational
started Friday.
“It was a really cool feeling, coming home and bringing my
team home because they don’t know where I grew up,” Blasier said.
The tournament also has a twist — three women competing in
the tournament are from Washington County.
In addition to Blasier, 2014 Germantown graduate Beth Kuske
plays for UW-Green Bay and 2012 Kettle Moraine Lutheran graduate Meghan Niemann
plays for Marquette.
Blasier, Niemann and Kuske each started Friday for their
respective colleges.
“There are a lot of good players coming out of our area,”
Niemann said.
Blasier was glad to be home and the weather welcomed her
appropriately: rain and sub-50degree temperatures.
When the team left Houston on Thursday, the temperature was
close to 90 degrees. It was about half that when they landed in Milwaukee.
The cold air hasn’t sat too well with a lot of Blasier’s
teammates. Of the 16 women on the roster, 10 are from Texas and two are from
southern California.
“I told them to bring a lot of sweatshirts,” she said with a
smile, adding most of the Texas natives are wearing two or three layers this
weekend.
It’s still cool for Blasier’s liking. One layer will
suffice.
Blasier’s parents, Mark and Amy, were happy to have their
daughter home as well. They only get to a couple matches a year and have to fly
to see them.
“I was so excited,” Sara Blasier said when she found out her
team was going to play in the tournament. “I don’t get to play in front of my
family or friends a lot. Having them here is pretty special to me.”
To celebrate her homecoming, more than 40 family, friends
and former teachers were expected to attend.
Blasier, who wants to go to medical school, decided to go to
Rice because she liked the campus, the city of Houston and the education
opportunity. Rice University is ranked No. 19 by U.S. News & World Report.
She would also get to play NCAA Division I volleyball.
“It was the best academic school I could go to,” Blasier
said.
“And I like the warm weather,” she added.
Blasier, Niemann and Kuske weren’t aware of the
circumstances surrounding the tournament with the Washington County
representation. When they found out, they were excited and proud.
“That’s pretty awesome,” Kuske said. “It’s cool to see where
everyone has gone the last couple of years.”
It speaks highly to the level of volleyball in the county.
Germantown is also represented at NCAA Division I Toledo University with Maggie
Johnston, and Carly Townsend is expected to join Johnston next fall.
In 2011, Blasier’s and Niemann’s senior years, four girls
volleyball players, including Blasier and Niemann, were on the Daily News
All-Area team who are now playing college volleyball on scholarship. The others
are West Bend West graduate Meghan Conley and KML graduate Becca Roembke, both
are at UW-Parkside, an NCAA Division II program.
Also slated to join the NCAA Division I ranks next year is
Hartford Union’s Brooke Schumacher, who is committed to the University of
Tennessee.
“It’s definitely rising,” Blasier said about volleyball in
the county. “I think a lot of high schools and colleges are doing a good job
training the younger girls and getting them recruited.
“The Midwest is becoming more well-known for volleyball.”
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