Knop Member of Lincoln Land Team Headed To Nationals

Kendall Knop, a Stewardson-Strasburg graduate, is a member of the Lincoln Land College volleyball team that is heading to Nationals next week.

Knop, a freshman, saw her team hand Illinois Central College a loss 25-13, 25-20, 25-21 to improve to 38-5 on the season and advance to the NJCAA Division II Nationals at Phoenix, Ariz. Thursday, Nov. 19 through Saturday, November 21.

"Whew, what a match," said Coach Jim Dietz, formerly Effingham St. Anthony High School's volleyball coach, after LLCC swept the No. 3.  "It was great to see us come out and play with intensity from the start. The funny thing is, we started with our 2015 tradition of 'let's have our first hit go out of bounds', but ICC was in the net, we scored, and were off to the races.

"When ICC pushed hard in the third game, we stuck to what we wanted to do. They tried to hit every shot in the book, and we just played great defense and that let us get the ball to Tiffany Sunderlin who just couldn't be stopped today. Now we take a couple days off and then back to practice preparing for Nationals."

The Loggers were ranked fourth in the nationa entering their regional. They will be one of 16 teams at the Nationals.

Knop was a two-sport star at Stew-Stras, playing both softball and volleyball.  In softball, Knop was all-state twice and all-conference four times, but in volleyball, she was able to lead her team to the state title game in 2013 while being named the Shelbyville-area Player of the Year.  She was a four-year letterwinner in volleyball and First Team All-National Trail Conference all four seasons, the first athlete so honored since Emilie Walk (2000-2003).