Lake Forest College Sports Information
November 14, 2006
Contact: Mike Wajerski, SID

Four Lake Forest Players Earn All-Midwest Conference Honors
Janelle Balcerzak and Nicole Baich named to First Team


Janelle Balcerzak Nicole Baich
Kendra Casey Lisa Sturgill
Lake Forest, Ill. - The All-Midwest Conference volleyball teams were released Tuesday (November 14) and four Foresters made the list. Senior Janelle Balcerzak (Milwaukee, Wis./Pius XI) and junior Nicole Baich (Westchester, Ill./Nazareth Academy) were named to the First Team and senior Kendra Casey (Wauwatosa, Wis./Wauwatosa West) and sophomore Lisa Sturgill (Sheboygan, Wis./Sheboygan South) were each Second Team selections.

Balcerzak led Lake Forest with 52 aces and ranked second on the team with 341 kills and 61 blocks. She was fourth in the conference in kills per game and second in aces per game. She finished her career as the program’s all-time leader with 216 career aces and she is second in team history with 1,312 kills and third with 289 blocks.

Baich led the Foresters with 390 kills and a school record 136 blocks on the season while ranking second in the league in both categories on a per-game basis. She also broke her own team record with 65 solo blocks on the year and is already the program’s all-time leader with 185 solos blocks in her career. She also ranks second in total blocks with 374 total blocks and fifth with 1,050 kills.

Casey recorded her second straight 1,000-assists season and ranked third in the conference in assists per game. She finished her four years on the team ranked third in team history with 2,441 career assists.

Sturgill reached the 600-dig mark for the second year in a row and now has 1,224 in her career, the fifth-highest total in team history. On a digs-per-game basis she ranked fifth in the MWC.

It was the fourth consecutive season that the Foresters had four players earn all-conference status and the team has garnered at least two first team selections for 11 seasons in a row. Lake Forest posted a 14-15 overall record and a 6-3 mark in the MWC. The squad advanced to the six-team MWC Tournament before falling in the quarterfinals.

Midwest Conference Release (pdf)