Locally: Whitworth senior Jessica Schmautz earns top volleyball honors
Jessica Schmautz’s big senior season at Whitworth has earned her a couple of major awards.
The outside hitter from Lakeside (Nine Mile Falls) was selected the Northwest Conference Volleyball Player of the Year and named to the American Volleyball Coaches Association NCAA Division III All-West Region first team.
The 5-foot-7 Schmautz dominated NWC offensive statistics, averaging 4.21 kills per set. She finished with 413 kills – 127 more than the next player of the list – hit .239 and added 2.89 digs, 37 blocks and 23 service aces. She averaged 4.7 points per set and was the NWC Offensive Player of the Week five times.
She was also named to the All-NWC first team along with junior teammate Erin White, who was also a first-team selection in 2016. Senior Lauren Budde, honorable mention in 2017, was named to the second team. Junior Emiko Kahler, a first-team selection as a freshman and sophomore, recovered from early season injuries to receive honorable mention.
College scene
The Hull twins from Central Valley started their collegiate basketball careers Wednesday as freshmen at Stanford in the Cardinal’s 71-43 victory over UC Davis.
Lexie started and played a team-high 27 minutes, posting a double-double with 11 points and 11 rebounds, with four steals. Lacie played 17 minutes with two points, three rebounds and two steals.
In Stanford’s 87-36 exhibition win over NAIA Vanguard University, Lexie had 11 points, five assists and four rebounds in 21 minutes and Lacie had two points, five rebounds, two assists and two steals in 15 minutes.
• Riley Lupfer, a Boise State junior from Lewis and Clark, was named the Mountain West Conference Preseason Player of the Year in women’s basketball following a sophomore season in which she set the league’s single-season 3-point record and earned first-team All-MWC.
Lupfer shot 50 percent from 3-point range and averaged 18.9 points a game in 2017-18.
• Freshman Ula Motuga will join the Washington State women’s basketball team after helping her native Australia to third place at the FIBA U-18 Women’s Asian Championships last week in Bengaluru, India, with a 75-58 victory over Korea.
Although Motuga went scoreless in nearly 8 minutes in the bronze-medal game, she averaged 8.0 points, 3.2 rebounds and just less than one assist and one steal a game as Australia went 4-2 in the tournament and earned a spot in the 2019 U-19 World Cup for the first time.
Her tournament high was 16 points in a 90-77 loss to eventual silver medalist Japan in the semifinals. China beat Japan 89-76 for the gold medal.
• Match Burnham, the Carroll College senior from Liberty, was the Frontier Conference Men’s Basketball Player of the Week after he averaged 23 points, seven rebounds and one steal as the Saints won twice. He was 15 of 30 from the field and 13 of 14 from the free-throw line.
• Justin Martin was the Cascade Collegiate Conference Men’s Basketball Player of the Week after the Multnomah junior from Lewis and Clark scored 61 points as Lions won twice for the first 3-0 start in school history.
After Martin opened the season with 26 points against Northwest Indian College the week before, he followed with 17 against West Coast Baptist before scoring a career-high 44 points with five assists against Cal-Maritime. He’s shooting 57.1 percent from the field, 51.4 from 3-point range and 72.2 from the free-throw line.
• Summer Reid, a St. Olaf sophomore from Ferris, has been named to the All-Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference first team in volleyball for a second straight season.
An outside hitter, Reid ranked seventh in the MIAC in kills (304) and kills per set (2.92), ninth in points per set (3.3) and 11th in points (245.5).
In helping lead the Northfield, Minnesota, NCAA Division III school to its most wins since 2010 (the Oles were 23-7), Reid reached double figures in kills 18 times and had 10 double-doubles. She was second on the team in digs (263) and digs per set (2.53) while contributing 32 total blocks.
• Sarah Sharp, Idaho’s senior outside hitter who was instrumental in the Vandals’ road victories at Portland State and Sacramento State, was the Big Sky Conference Volleyball Offensive Player of the Week.
Sharp, who had 42 kills, an average of 4.67 per set, and hit .340 in the two wins, ranks third in the conference with 3.94 kills per set. Idaho’s 3-2 decision at Sacramento State dealt the perennial Big Sky power its first home loss in nearly four years.
• Junior Joslyn Bopray from Lewis and Clark and senior Aubrey Stephens from Colville are Western Washington players named to the Great Northwest Athletic Conference All-Academic volleyball team.
Bopray, a repeater, has a 3.47 GPA in accounting. Stephens has a 3.22 in psychology.
Joining them on the all-academic team is Northwest Nazarene sophomore Abbey Blum from Troy, Idaho, with a 3.77 in biology: pre-medicine.
• Freshmen Lindsey Russell (Mead) and Demary Sugg shared Northwest Athletic Conference East Region Setter of the Week honors in volleyball the past two weeks to headline honors for Community Colleges of Spokane.
Freshman Alleana Gallagher was the East Defensive Player of the Week for Nov. 7 and sophomore Joelle Mahowald was the East Offensive Player of the Week Oct. 31. Both are from Lakeside (Nine Mile Falls).
• Idaho junior safety Jalen Hoover was named the Big Sky Conference Special Teams Player of the Week in football after he blocked a punt that the Vandals returned for a touchdown during their fourth-quarter rally to a 31-27 victory over North Dakota last Saturday at the Kibbie Dome.
• Two Whitworth Pirates collected Northwest Conference athlete-of-the-week awards last week.
Kale Wong, a junior linebacker, received football’s defensive award after he led the Pirates with 11 tackles, including a shared tackle for loss, and intercepted a pass in a 38-28 win over Lewis & Clark.
Men’s swimming honors went to freshman Finn McClone, who was unbeaten in three individual events and anchored two winning relays against George Fox in the Whitworth pool. His times in the 200- and 500-yard freestyles were the best of the season for a Pirate.
Lura Morton, a Puget Sound senior from Moscow, Idaho, received the NWC women’s soccer offensive award. She scored two goals in a come-from-behind win at Linfield, including the winner with 5 minutes to play that earned the Loggers a share of the league title and spot in the NCAA playoffs.
• Kelcie Hedge, a Santa Clara redshirt junior midfielder from Post Falls, was voted by league coaches the West Coast Conference Player of the Year in women’s soccer after leading the Broncos to a second-place finish and a 16-3-1 overall record, their most wins since 2001.
Hedge was third in the WCC with six goals, all scored in a span of five matches, and 14 points. She was the only midfielder to finish the WCC season with more than 10 points, this despite missing one game with an injury. She had seven goals and two assists in 19 matches.
She started her career at Washington and made the Pac-12 All-Freshman team in 2015 after scoring four goals with three assists. She redshirted the 2016 season to play with the U.S. U-20 Women’s National Team in the Women’s World Cup in Papua New Guinea. She had one goal and four assist for Santa Clara in 2017.
• In her final collegiate game, Gonzaga senior defender Ariana Pumpelly spearheaded a Bulldogs defense that produced the school’s first win over Portland, a 1-0 shutout, and it earned her the final West Coast Conference Women’s Soccer Player of the Week award of the season. GU allowed just three shots on goal in its 10th win.
• Four area athletes were named to College Sports Information Directors of America Academic All-District teams in women’s soccer and are eligible for CoSIDA Academic All-America teams.
Heading the list is Idaho senior defender Kelly Dopke, the only Big Sky Conference player honored, who was named to the Division I District 7 first team with a 4.0 GPA in medical services.
Washington State senior goalkeeper Rachel Thompson was named to the Division I District 8 first team with a 3.78 in human development. Named to the Division II District 8 first team was Northwest Nazarene midfielder Madi Taylor from Lewiston with a 3.90 in pre-physical therapy.
Eastern Oregon’s Josee Bassett, a junior from Coeur d’Alene High School, was named to the NAIA District 4 team with a 3.90 as a nursing major.
• Former Central Valley teammates Kasey Ames and McKenna Stocker, who are senior teammates at Concordia University in Portland, were named to All-Great Northwest Athletic Conference teams in women’s soccer.
Ames, a midfielder with two winning goals and three assists, was a unanimous first-team selection. Stocker, a key member of the Cavaliers’ defense that allowed just 0.54 goals a game with nine shutouts, was on the second team. Both were honorable mention as juniors.
Makinzie Packwood, a Central Washington forward from Clarkston who tied for the team lead with four goals in her freshman season, was also on the second team.
Men’s soccer selections included Jake Levine, a Northwest Nazarene sophomore forward from Central Valley, named to the second team. Levine, who tied for second on the team with five goals, was honorable mention in 2017.
• GNAC All-Academic soccer teams included eight area athletes – Seattle Pacific sophomore Travis Swallow from Lake City with a 4.0 GPA in business administration on the men’s team, and seven women.
The women, by schools:
Northwest Nazarene: Chloe Schlotz, Central Valley, a senior with a 3.79 GPA in pre-physical therapy selected for a third straight year, and Madi Taylor, a senior from Lewiston, a repeater with a 3.90 in pre-physical therapy.
Concordia: Michaela Prothe, Ferris, junior, 3.50, elementary education; Stocker, 3.71, biology, selected for the third straight year; and Ames, 3.51, business, a repeater.
Montana State Billings: Hallie Vervair, Mt. Spokane, sr., 3.0, education.
Seattle Pacific: Claire Neder, Mead, sophomore, 3.48, business administration.
• Community Colleges of Spokane freshman goalkeeper Micky Ramirez was the Northwest Athletic Conference Women’s Soccer Athlete of the Week after posting her 11th shutout with seven saves as the Sasquatch captured the East Region title Oct. 25 with a 1-0 victory over rival North Idaho in a battle of No. 1 vs. No. 2.
• Nick Hauger, the men’s conference champion for Portland, four Gonzaga men and two women were named to West Coast Conference All-Academic teams in cross country.
Hauger, a senior from Shadle Park, earned academic honors for the first time with a 3.25 GPA in biology. He was joined on the men’s first team by GU senior Kyle Thompson with a 3.36 in economics. Thompson was honorable mention as a junior.
Bulldogs Phillip Fishburn, first-team all-academic last year; Bennett Gagnon, a repeater on the list; and Andrew Clusserath received honorable mention.
The women’s team included Gonzaga’s Kelly Gilbert and Aimee Piercy, who were honorable mention for a second straight year.
• Three area high school graduates were named to Frontier Conference all-conference teams in cross country based on top-10 finishes in the conference championship meet and two others were NAIA Champions of Character recipients in the sport.
Cole Olsen a Lewis-Clark State sophomore from Clearwater, Idaho, who was third, and John Cooney, a Carroll College junior from Gonzaga Prep, who was 10th, are on the men’s all-conference team. The women’s all-conference team includes Gaby Gomez-Wint, a Montana Western senior from Shadle Park, who was fifth.
Champions of Character recipients from L-C State were junior Connor Turpin from Lewiston and freshman Jacinta Kuther from Nezperce.
• Two former area runners, redshirt freshman Shawnee Konrad from Mt. Spokane and Tracey Melville, a junior from Lind-Ritzville/Sprague, had top-25 finishes for the Western Washington women at the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Cross Country Championships last weekend in Monmouth, Oregon. Konrad was 17th (22:23.6 for 6K) and Melville was 23rd (22.41.4).
• Kicking a ball earned women’s soccer player Jenny Chavez and football player Roldan Alcobendas Scholar-Athlete of the Month honors for October at Eastern Washington.
Chavez, a senior with a 3.54 GPA majoring in communication studies with a minor in African-American studies, started all six matches, scoring in four straight at one stretch, as the Eagles went 3-3 in October and advanced to the Big Sky Tournament.
She finished her career named to the All-Big Sky first team for a third straight year with 23 career goals and 48 career points, both third all time in the program.
Alcobendas, a sixth-year senior with a 3.23 GPA as a business administration marketing major with a minor in communications, was a perfect 5 of 5 kicking field goals and 12 of 12 on extra points in October.
• Marissa Mount of cross country and Chad Wilburg of football have been selected the Whitworth student-athletes of the month for their performances in October.
Mount was named the Northwest Conference Women’s Runner of the Year after winning the individual title at the NWC Championships. The senior also won the Lewis & Clark Invitational.
Wilburg finished October with eight sacks and 20 tackles. The senior defensive end was named the NWC Defensive Player of the Week on Oct. 22.