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The University of Alaska Fairbanks    

Nanooks net two prized recruits

The UAF Sports Information announces the signing of two Student-Athletes to next year's volleyball team. Danielle Hitzeman, a 5'10" Outside/Middle Hitter from Vacaville, California and Katie Tobiasz, a 6'1" Middle Hitter from Rocky River, Ohio each signed National Letters of Intent on Wednesday, the first day of the "early signing period" as determined by the NCAA.

As a junior, Hitzeman helped Vacaville High School win the league championship and was named to the All-League Team. When she continued her season by playing club volleyball she was named to the All-Tournament Team at the High Sierra Tournament. She also was a Gold Medal winner at the USAV Jr. Olympic Volleyball Championships where she also earned All-Tournament Team status. 2002 awards have not yet been announced in California. Coach Shoemaker says, "I am really excited about Danielle coming to our team, and I expect her to do great things for us. This is also a terrific place for her to continue her education." Shoemaker goes on to say that Hitzeman is a blend between Mallory Bergstrom and Jamie Schanback. "She has superior athleticism and possess terrific ball handling skills." Danielle was being courted by Division I schools such as St. Mary's, Oregon, Washington, Santa Barbara and Portland. She visited Portland before her trip up north. Once she saw what UAF had to offer, the decision was simple.

Katie Tobiasz led Rocky River High School, earning All-District, All-Region, All-Area, All-State and team MVP awards in each of the last two years. This year she was also named "Best of the Best" for Cleveland, which is awarded to the top six players in the area. After her Junior year Tobiasz was named as one of Ohio's top 12 volleyball players; this award has yet to be announced for 2002. She has been named to the first team All-League each year since her freshman year at Rocky River High School. However Katie is not finished for the season. She has been selected to compete in two statewide All-Star matches. Katie took all five of her allotted "Official Visits" where the institution pays for her visit. Four of the five visits were to Division I schools (Cleveland State, Southern Illinois, Central Florida and Drexel). She elected to join the only D II program she visited. "Katie is an exciting athlete, she will bring a lot of energy to our team. Certainly she is talented too. She is someone who I think is really going to be exciting and fun to watch. She WILL make her mark on our team over the course of her career. I am looking forward to working with her." Shoemaker says, "The people in Fairbanks are really going to enjoy her, while the people in the GNAC probably won't."

"I do think, probably, that Katie and Danielle are the most recognized players (on a national level) at their position to enter UAF as freshmen," Shoemaker says. "You always try to recruit the best players possible. We surely did it this year. Each of these two were at the top of our list. We knew we would be pleased if either girl signed, but both, well, that was, statisticly speaking, a very slim chance." When asked about his desire to get the best volleyball players from Alaska first and then go outside, he said "Alaskans were slow to respond this year, so we looked outside. We have had unprecedented success from outside, more interest from players than ever before in my time here."