NVVA NEWS
How are NVVA players doing in their high school season?

• Loudoun Valley Girls: Lindsay Phipps, Nicole Bennett, Ally Blaine, Taylor Maddox, Kristen Martin. [ see article ]

• Cat Jones: College Vision Student Athlete of the Month - October 2008 [ see article ]

• Loudoun 16 Black: Hannah Vick #4, Steph Drahozal #3, and Kelly Madden #12. [ see article ]

• Flint Hill School has its share of NVVA girls: 15s Select Marilyn Peizer; 18s Select Chelsea Overholt; Fairfax 15s Black Taylor Nelson and Jess Fellows. See articles in the Washington Post 1 | 2 and Prepvolleyball

Former NVVA players shine in the Collegiate Ranks

Over the last few years numerous volleyball players with NVVA pedigree have continued playing on a high level, let’s catch up with a few former players:

• Penn State’s starting right side, Blair Brown anchors a solid wall for the undefeated returning national champions. The Nittany Lions remain # 1 in all DI polls.

• Maryland boasts several local players including kill leader Katie Usher.

• Setter Jenna Palaschak has over 500 assists this fall for US Merchant Marine Academy.

• Lauren Wise has over 200 kills this season as a third year outside for Connecticut College.

• UNC-Pembroke is home to several girls with Northern VA ties including right side Lizzie O’Connor and Middle Hitter Rachael Young, (both are all conference academic as well!).

• Potomac State in WV garnered the PCCA title with freshman setter Krista Plummer (over 700 assists).

• Christopher Newport is 27-6 and is currently ranked 22nd in the latest Division III coaching poll also with several local players including Rebecca Dancy.

• Leading the NJCAA national rankings of Aces per set (1.571) is freshman Melissa McCandless playing for Fashion Institute of Technology.

A special moment

PRESS RELEASE

President George W. Bush presented the President's Volunteer Service Award to Kat and Clare Lanigan on the South Lawn of the White House on Sunday, September 7, 2008. The sisters receiveed the award during a Tee Ball game that saluteed members of the military and their families. President Bush honored volunteers with this award to thank them for making a difference in the lives of others. Kat, 17, and Clare, 16, were recognizeded for their volunteer efforts with A Thousand Thanks to Military Children.

The Lanigan sisters, daughters of a US Army Reservist who has been deployed three times, created A Thousand Thanks to Military Children in 2006 to honor children of deployed military. Enlisting the support of celebrities like S haquille O'Neal and popular Warner Bros. characters like Tweety Bird and Scooby Doo, they send letters of thanks to children who have a parent deployed and receive hundreds of requests a week. The sisters, who play together on the varsity volleyball team for Westfield High School in Chantilly, Virginia, sometimes enlist their teammates to keep up with the demand and other high school students who are looking to earn volunteer service hours.

"It is just a small, but hopefully significant, way to honor and recognize the children throughout the nation who have a parent deployed. We know what it is like20and how hard it can be. They are heroes, too. I wish they could all be with us to share in this award," says Kat.

"It has been so gratifying," says Clare. "A Navy wife wrote and told us that her little boy sleeps with his letter under his pillow. An Army Officer emailed us and said the letter was one of the first things his daughter showed him when he returned from Iraq."

The Lanigan sisters are the volunteer Co-Chairs of the national Kids Serve Too Advisory Board. Kids Serve Too, a program of Salute Our Services,20is aimed at identifying ways to support children of deployed military. You can read more about the Thousand Thanks project atwww.saluteourservices.org. For more information, or to speak with one of the Lanigan sisters, contact Sarah Pequignot, of Kids Serve Too, at 602.316.2413, or Courtney Reddington, Director of Family Programs for Salute Our Services, at 703.234.1773.

For more information on the White House Tee Ball game, contact the White House Office of Media Affairs at 202.456.62 38.

Press Release Contact:
Sarah Pequignot
Kids Serve Too
602.316.2413 cell - 703.234.1773 office

NVVA teams that went to Nationals in 2008!