Catching up on regional news

The last month or so was busy. From compiling all-conference teams to Academic All-District teams and All-Region teams and All-America teams, from tracking conference tournaments through the daily NCAA tournament posts, from creating Regional Guides and a Nationals Guide, from continually updating the Standout Stats page to following the future championship host selection process and posting other volleyball tidbits in the interim, some news has slipped through the cracks.

Here’s some Central and Midwest region news that got pushed to the background. • Kelly Bethke was named the new head coach at Augustana College. She was most recently an assistant at Edgewood College.

• UW-Stout head coach Jill Jolliff stepped down after 21 seasons.

• Maranatha lost its two pool matches at the NCCAA D-II national tournament and did not advance to the championship round. Clearwater Christian College won the 2013 NCCAA D-II title.

• Maranatha’s Laci Peterson was named the Association of Division III Independents Player of the Year. Peterson was also selected to the National Christian College Athletic Association D-II All-America team and named NCCAA Midwest Region Player of the Year.

• Maranatha’s Pam Borchardt and Lauren Schulz were named NCCAA All-Midwest Region and NCCAA D-II Second Team All-America.

• Maranatha’s Regina DeLozier was named the NCCAA Midwest Region Coach of the Year.

• Named NCCAA 2013 scholar-athletes were: North Central’s (Minn.) Veronica Parks; Crown’s Beth Steward, Rochelle Robertson, Victoria Foley, Lauren Hickman; and Maranatha’s Laci Peterson, Pam Borchardt, Emily Thompson, Erin Steuerwald, Megan Rasmussen, and Stacie Ross.

Upcoming news includes Academic All-America (Dec. 10), NCAA announcement of championship and regional hosts (Dec. 11), and AVCA National Coach and Assistant Coach of the Year (Dec. 19).

I’ll also do some housecleaning posts, including how I did with my preseason predictions.

-Ricky Nelson