Adding to her Missouri Valley Conference Most Valuable Player award, four-time AVCA All-Region selection and Verizon Academic All-District choice,
Kendra Haselhorst was chosen Most Valuable Player for the 2000 Illinois State University volleyball team.
Haselhorst, a senior from Aviston, Ill., who graduated from Breese Mater Dei High School, led the Valley in kills per game and will graduate as Illinois State's all-time block leader and the Valley's all-time hitting percentage leader. She was honored during halftime ceremonies of the recent Illinois State women's basketball game against Southwest Missouri State. Haselhorst also was team MVP in 1999.
She led the Redbirds to a 19-10 record, second place in the Missouri Valley Conference regular season and runner-up in the State Farm-Missouri Valley Conference Tournament.
The festivities also announced the winners of two other team awards. Junior setter
Becky Weber earned the Kristin Kueltzo Most Inspirational Player Award, so-named for a former Redbird player who contributed to back-to-back NCAA Tournament bids in the mid-1990s.
Junior middle blocker
Jenny Kabbes, who missed the entire 2000 season recovering from shoulder surgery, earned the Kelly Meisner Award, which is named for a former Redbird player who lost a three-year battle to cancer in 1997. The Meisner Award was presented by Meisner's parents, Jean Young and Bill Meisner.
Also honored during the ceremonies was
Jackie Utz, the only other senior on the team. Redbird coach
Sharon Dingman, who is completing her first year at Illinois State, will have 12 letterwinners available for the 2001 season.
