April 13, 2006
Normal, Ill. -
For more than 40 years, the late Jack Buck punctuated broadcasts of St. Louis Cardinals baseball victories with the phrase "That's a winner!" Well, Mr. Buck would have the same thing to say about Kasey Mollerus, an Incarnate Word Academy student-athlete who has signed a National Letter of Intent to play college volleyball at Illinois State. Mollerus is a winner.
At Incarnate Word, the 5-foot-4 defensive specialist helped lead her teams to three consecutive Missouri High School Activities Association Class 4A State Championships (2003, 2004, 2005). Her Team St. Louis club volleyball squads have been consistent top five national finishers in open competition for all seven years she has played. In her four years as a starter at Incarnate Word, her teams were a combined 138-12-1, including an unbeaten 38-0 in 2004.
Redbird coach Sharon Dingman is thrilled to have Mollerus coming in to help continue the winning tradition in Normal, where Illinois State has won eight Missouri Valley Conference regular-season conference championships, nine State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Tournament titles and made 11 trips to the NCAA Tournament.
Mollerus, who lives in St. Charles, Mo., joins two other former St. Louis prep stars who began volleyball careers at Illinois State in 2005 - reigning Missouri Valley Conference Freshman of the Year Erin Lindsey (a setter from Eureka High School) and versatile hitter/blocker Mary Catherine Richmond (a Lindbergh High School graduate).
Dingman believes Mollerus will become a crowd favorite at Illinois State's Redbird Arena, where Redbird volleyball teams are among the nation's top 10 in home attendance for the last decade.
"Kasey comes from winning programs in high school and in club," said Dingman. "She is an energizer. She loves to play volleyball, loves to compete and demonstrates those things every time she steps on the court. Plus, she helps us continue our connection to St. Louis-area athletes."
Mollerus averaged 3.4 digs per game as a junior and 3.2 as a senior at Incarnate Word. Her passing efficiency was locked in at nearly 98 percent, even though she handled nearly five serves per game for her teams. Dingman values her skills, especially since the 2005 Missouri Valley Conference Libero of the Year, Ashley Grubb, is graduating from Illinois State this spring.
"Kasey is a back-court player who can cover a lot of the court," said Dingman. "She is fast and plays hard. She will add ball control to our team immediately. We are thrilled to add her to an already extremely talented 2006 recruiting class."
That recruiting class includes middle blocker Katie Seyller from Bloomington, Ill., and outside hitters Mary McGinnis from Fraser, Mich., and Peggy Riessen from Moscow, Iowa.
