Purdue North Central volleyball recently announced the signing of Kim Kacafirek for the 2008-09 academic year.

Kacafirek will graduate from North Judson High School this spring where she was co-captain of the volleyball team.

During the past two seasons Kacafirek racked up 284 kills and 113 blocks as an outside hitter.

Kacafirek, who plans on studying Pre-Veterinary medicine at PNC, was involved in several activities at North Judson including: Key Club, Teen Power, Student Council and German Club where she has served as President the past two years. She also participated in swimming and track.

Kacafirek will play for second year coach John Higgins and assistant Scott Shrader at PNC.

Ashley Gallant, a 5'11 outside hitter from Michigan City , IN recently committed to play volleyball for Purdue North Central and head coach John Higgins next season.

Gallant was a four-year letter winner and three year starter at Michigan City High School . She helped lead the team to Sectional Championships and Conference Championships in both her freshman and sophomore years

During her time at Michigan City Gallant earned several awards for her outstanding play. As a sophomore Gallant earned Second Team All Area for the Michigan City News Dispatch and Honorable Mention All Area for the La Porte Herald Argus.

As a junior, Gallant earned First Team All Area from the News Dispatch and Herald Argus. She also earned a spot on the Duneland Athletic Conference All-Conference Team.

During her senior year, Gallant was once again named All Area for the News Dispatch, Herald Argus and DAC All-Conference. She was also chosen the team MVP.

Outside of high school volleyball, Gallant played club volleyball for the Dunes Volleyball Club for eight consecutive years and helped lead her team to the Nationals six years in a row. The six trips included winning the title the past two years and top five finishes three of the other four years.

Gallant is the daughter of Richard Gallant and Jeannie Voltz.

Megan Staroscsak, a student-athlete from Highland High School , recently signed a letter of intent to play volleyball for Purdue North Central and Head Coach John Higgins.

This past season Staroscsak, a two year starter at Libero, led Highland with 453 digs while adding 21 aces, 19 assists and five kills. The co-captain was named First Team All-Northwest Crossroads Conference and to the All-NCC Academic Team.

Staroscsak was also named 2007 All Area Honorable Mention by The Times Newspaper and the Post Tribune.

Staroscsak intends to major in Nursing at Purdue North Central. She currently has a 3.93 GPA and is ranked 36 th of 295 students. She is a member of the National Honors Society, the Spanish Honors Society, Student Council, and the Spanish Club.

Staroscsak participated in Basketball and Soccer at Highland . She also competed for Top Spin Volleyball club and is currently a Libero for Diamond Elite Volleyball Club.

The Panthers are coming off their first intercollegiate season and look forward to a breakout campaign next year when they join the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference.

Lindsey Anderson led PNC with season high 26 Kills and 16 Digs. Magen Hogge added 12 Kills and eight digs and Angela Edwards had 39 assists. The Panthers finished 3-26 overall.

Next year, in PNC’s second season, the Panthers will compete in the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference.

PNC played against Park College in their first game of the tournament and lost in three games by the scores of 30-26, 30-17, 30-13. Lindsey Anderson led the Panthers with 21 digs and eight kills and Magen Hogge also added eight kills and an Ace.

Saturday’s first match was against Grace College and the Panthers lost by the scores of 30-25, 30-14, 30-24. Lindsey Anderson led the Panthers with 15 kills and 29 digs and Angela Edwards led the team with 31 assists and two aces.

Saturday’s second match was against the University of Illinois Springfield. The Panthers lost to UIS by the scores of 30-18, 30-25, and 30-15. Magen Hogge had the highest hitting percentage for PNC while earning 13 kills. Lindsey Anderson also had 13 kills to go along with her 12 digs.

The Panthers last match of the season is against Manchester College on Tuesday, October 30th at home. The Match starts at 7pm. As a reminder, all home matches are played at Michigan City Marquette High School.

The PNC Volleyball team lost a hard fought three-game match to Trinity International University last night in Deerfield, IL by the scores of 31-29, 30-28, & 30-25.

The Panthers played great team defense but were not able to close out a game to earn the victory. Lindsey Anderson led the Panthers in Kills with 26 and Magen Hogge added 11. Angela Edwards spread the ball around the offense and added 33 assists.

PNC hosts Robert Morris at home this Saturday at 1 p.m.

The Purdue University North Central Volleyball team traveled to Marion, Indiana on Friday to take on NAIA powerhouse Indiana Wesleyan University, currently ranked 25th in the country. The Panthers fell in three games by the scores of 30-13, 30-13, and 30-10.

Lindsey Anderson led the Panthers with seven kills and Angela Edwards added 12 assists.

The Panthers, now 2-20 in their first season of intercollegiate competition, travel to Deerfield, Illinois on Tuesday to take on Trinity International University.

The Purdue North Central volleyball team traveled to Upland, Indiana this weekend to take on Taylor University and Ohio Dominican University .

The Panthers first match was against host Taylor University . PNC lost in three games by the scores of 30-10, 30-17, and 30-19. Lindsey Anderson led the panthers with eight kills and 14 digs. Alyssa Whitaker led PNC with two aces and Angela Edwards contributed with 17 assists.

The Panthers last match of the day was against Ohio Dominican University . PNC fell in three games by the scores of 14-30, 24-30, and 26-30. Anderson and Leah Oman led the Panther in Kills during this match with 16 and nine respectively while Anderson added two aces. Edwards distributed the ball to the hitters and finished the match with 30 assists.

PNC's next match is this Friday at Indiana Wesleyan University at 7 p.m.

The Purdue North Central volleyball team traveled to Chicago last night to take on future conference rival, Illinois Institute of Technology.

The Panthers lost a three game match by the scores of 24-30, 27-30, and 14-30. Lindsey Anderson led the Panthers with 12 Kills and 12 Digs. Magen Hogge added seven Kills and three digs and Angela Edwards chipped in with 23 assists.

The Panthers travel to Upland, Indiana this weekend to take on Taylor and Ohio Dominican Universities in a three-way match.

The Purdue North Central volleyball team traveled to River Forest, IL this weekend to play Concordia University (host) and Lakeland College.

The Panther's first match was against Lakeland College (WI). PNC lost in three games by the scores of 21-30, 19-30, and 17-30. Lindsey Anderson (eight kills and three aces) led the Panthers in the loss while Angela Edwards chipped in with 19 assists.

The second match of the day was against Concordia College and the Panthers fell in three games by the scores of 14-30, 23-30, and 31-33. Anderson had 18 kills for the Panthers and 15 digs while Magen Hogge added eight kills and six digs.

PNC, now 2-16 in their inaugral intercollegiate season, travels to Illinois Institute of Technology on Thursday night and Taylor University in Upland, Indiana this weekend.

The Purdue North Central volleyball team traveled to Fort Wayne this past weekend to play against Concordia (MI) College, Oakland College, and Taylor University (host school) this past weekend. The Panthers record was 0-4, but they were extremely competitive and took games from Taylor and Concordia.

PNC started the tournament against Taylor and and lost the first two games 17-30 and 11-30. PNC picked up their play in the third game due to better defense and serve receiving. The Panthers won game three by the score of 30-21. PNC finished the match with a tough fourth game loss by the score of 23-30. The panthers were in this match by outside hitter Lindsey Anderson with 18 kills and three aces. Angela Edwards led the Panthers with 24 Assists.

The Panthers matched up against Concordia College in their second match of the tournament. PNC lost the match in three highly contested games by the scores of 20-30, 30-32, and 26-30. Anderson led the Panthers with 14 kills while Leah Oman added 13. Edwards picked up 37 Assists and three aces and Daisy Lee added five kills and two aces.

PNC matched up against Oakland College in back-to-back matches on Saturday. The Panthers lost the first match in four games by the scores of 20-30, 27-30, 30-28, and 23-30 and the second match in three games by the scores of 28-30, 22-30, and 19-30.

In the first match, PNC was led in kills by Anderson with 24, Magen Hogge with 13, and Lee with 10. Alyssa Whitacker led PNC with seven aces and Sabrina Pridziad had 24 Digs. The Panthers were led in the second match against Oakland College by Edwards with 34 assists and two aces and Anderson with 17 kills and nine digs.

The Panthers next match is this Saturday in Chicago . The Panthers will face off against Concordia College (Chicago) and Lakeland College at 1 and 3 pm.

The PNC volleyball team lost a hard fought three-game match to Robert Morris College Thursday night in Chicago by the scores of 30-17, 30-26, & 31-29.

The first two games saw te Panthers struggling to get on track. In game one poor passing and ball control led to the Panthers demise. In game two PNC led most of the way before relinquishing the lead in the late stages of the game.

However, in game three PNC found themselves down five points early in the game three but fought back to take the lead at 24-23. The third game proceeded to go back and forth between the two future conference rivals before Robert Morris squeaked out the victory.

Lindsey Anderson led the Panthers in Kills with 21 and Magen Hogge added 10. Angela Edwards spread the ball around the offense and added 30 assists.

The Panthers will get a second chance against Robert Morris on October 20th at the Scholl Center. This weekend PNC travels to Taylor Fort Wayne to play in a four team tournament.

The Purdue North Central volleyball team defeated I.U. Northwest Tuesday night in Michigan City. The Panthers handled their opponent in three straight games by the scores of 30-11, 30-23, and 30-13.

All starters for the Panthers made contributions in their big win. PNC was led in kills by Magen Hogge with 13 and Lindsey Anderson with 10. Angela Edwards did an excellent job of spreading the ball around by adding 29 assists to go along with her 7 aces.

PNC (2-9) will look to build off this win as they travel to Loyola University on Thursday evening to take on future conference rival Robert Morris.

The Purdue North Central volleyball team competed in a four-way match at St. Francis of Fort Wayne this weekend. The Panthers went 0-3 in their matches but played competitively throughout the day.

PNC started Saturday with a three game loss to Sienna Heights (MI) by the scores of 30-15, 30-22 and 30-11. The Panthers were led by Magen Hogge with six kills, Angela Edwards with 12 assists, and Sabrina Pradziad with two aces.

The Panthers next match was against Aquinas College (MI). The Panthers lost in three games, by the scores of 30-25, 30-21 and 30-14. Magen Hogge and Leah Omen led PNC with six kills each while Daisy Lee added five kills. Angela Edwards had 18 assists and Sabrina Pradziad added two aces.

PNC ended the day with a three game loss to the host school, St. Francis University. The Panthers fell by the scores of 30-17, 30-12 and 30-12. Daisy Lee led the Panthers with nine kills and Angela Edwards led in assists with 14.

The Panthers (1-9) next match is at home on Tuesday against Indiana University Northwest at 7 p.m.

The Purdue North Central volleyball team competed in the Aurora University Tournament this weekend and left with their first win of the season. The Panthers overall record was 1-3 for the weekend.

The Panthers started the tournament Friday morning against Manchester University (IN) and lost a close , three game match by the scores of 30-24, 30-23, 30-23. The Panthers played extremely competitive in all three games due to aggressive team defense. PNC was led in kills (14) and digs (13) by Junior outside-hitter Lindsey Anderson.

The Panthers next match was against Benedictine University (IL). The Panthers lost in three games by the scores of 30-21, 30-21, 30-13. The Panthers were led in assists during this match by Angela Edwards (24), digs by Daisy Lee (12) and kills by Lindsey Anderson (19).

PNC Started out Saturday with a three game loss to St. Norbert College (WI), who went undefeated throughout the tournament. The scores were 30-12, 30-15, 30-20, as the Panthers made improvements with each game. Sabrina Pradziad led PNC with two aces and seven digs.

The Panthers ended on a high note with their first win of the season against Mt. Mary College (WI) by the scores of 30-18, 30-16, 30-16. The Panthers were led by in assists by Angela Edwards (35) , kills by Lindsey Anderson (23) , digs by Magen Hogge (6) , and Aces by Daisy Lee (8).

The Panthers (1-6) will travel next weekend to the University of St. Francis- Fort Wayne for a three way tournament.

The Purdue University North Central volleyball team lost a three game match last night to Taylor University (Fort Wayne) in Michigan City. The final scores were 18-30, 29-31, and 22-30.

The Panthers were competitive in each of the three games and led the way in most of game two until it slipped away at the end of the game. Game three started with Taylor pulling out to a nine-point lead. The Panthers continued to fight back and tied the score at 19-19 before Taylor made one final push to end the game.

The Panthers played great team defense and received great contributions from everyone on the court. The Panthers were led in assists by Angela Edwards (24) , kills by Lindsey Anderson (14), and aces by Magen Hogge (2).

PNC travels to Aurora University for a two-day tournament this weekend. The Panthers will match up against Manchester College, Benedictine University, St. Norbert College, and Mt. Mary University.

The PNC volleyball team continued their season Wednesday night in Michigan City against Indiana Wesleyan University. The Panthers (0-1) fell in three games by the scores of 14-30, 18-30, and 15-30 to last year's Mid-Central College Conference champions.

The Panthers were led by Lindsey Anderson with 14 kills, 12 digs, and three blocks and Angela Edwards with 14 assists. Magen Hogge added seven kills for the Panthers and Sabrina Pradziad had nine digs.

The Panthers will be looking for their first win when they host Taylor University (Fort Wayne) on Sept. 4th at 7 p.m.

The PNC Panthers started their first season as an intercollegiate volleyball program last night with a loss to the University of St. Francis, Fort Wayne at Marquette High School in Michigan City.

The Panthers fell in three games by the score of 30-15, 30-16, 30-28. The Panthers competed closely and improved each game against the long established squad from Fort Wayne.

The Panthers were led in kills (16), digs (14), and aces (5) by Lindsay Anderson, a junior college transfer student from Springfield, Illinois and were led in assists by Angela Edwards, a returning Sophomore setter. The PNC coaches John Higgins and Scott Schroeder were extremely pleased by their team's effort against a well proven opponent.

The Panthers host their second match tomorrow at home (Marquette High School in Michigan City) against Indiana Wesleyan University at 7 p.m.