Leelanau Sports Guy’s World at sportspig.com

The Record Eagle’s Mark Urban has compiled his latest look at local stars in college and several former Leelanau County athletes are doing quite well especially Leland’s Alisha Glass…

The top-ranked Nittany Lions beat No. 20 Illinois (25-16, 25-19, 25-12) on Saturday and No. 19 Purdue (25-12, 25-15, 25-21) on Friday to increase their record to 14-0. Penn State has yet to lose a set in any match this season.

Leading the Nittany Lions is junior setter Alisha Glass (Leland). Glass had 36 assists, two kills, two digs and one block while helping PSU hit .453 against Illinois and had 34 assists, two kills, four digs and two blocks against Purdue.

Read College Notes: Perfection for Glass in the Record Eagle

where people are making resolutions (Big Al isn’t going to like #8!) and putting together best of lists for 2007, so it’s a perfect time to add a link to the Record Eagle’s Top 10 Sports Stories of 2007.

One of their stories is about former Leland volleyball star Alisha Glass helping Penn State win the 2007 NCAA Volleyball Championship.

Updated!
Here is the Leelanau Enterprise’s 2007 Year in Review!

Mark Urban of the Record Eagle has compiled a report on area athletes participating in college athletics. This latest article features former Leelanau County stars…

Ben Darling (Freshman, Suttons Bay)
Men’s Soccer, Kalamazoo

Alisha Glass (Sophomore, Leland)
Women’s Volleyball, Penn State

Read College Notes: Burke comes up big for Colgate in the Record Eagle

The Detroit Athletic Club has named Glen Lake track/cross-country star Marissa Treece as their 2007 Female Athlete of the Year. Treece was one of six finalists for the award. It’s the second year in a row a Leelanau County athlete has won with Alisha Glass winning last year.

“I think it’s pretty exciting,” said Treece, who has won four state titles in track and three in cross country. “All six of us are qualified. It’s just exciting that I got something like that.”

Treece is headed to Notre Dame this fall.

Read Treece state’s top athlete in the Record Eagle

Opinions on five current Leelanau and Northern Michigan sports topics from yours truly…

1. Leelanau Enterprise Sports – The Leelanau Enterprise has revamped their website and now will be posting more stories online, including sports! Check out their sports department! I of course will be linking to them often as they provide another way to follow our favorite Leelanau teams.

2. Leelanau Classic – I only wish this event would have been around when I was coaching! Lake Leelanau St. Mary defeated Suttons Bay 4-1 to capture the baseball title and Glen Lake cruised to the softball title with a 17-0 win over Suttons Bay in the championship game.

Read Korson sparks Eagles to title in the Record Eagle

3. Beach Bums ready for 2007 – Opening Day for the Beach Bums is one month from today (at Kalamazoo Kings on May 23rd) and plenty of new things are on tap as they start their second summer in Traverse City. Lots of new faces, including a new manager, should make for another exciting season in the Frontier League. See what the Beach Bums have in store for 2007!

4. NHL & NBA Playoffs – It’s never hard to get a prediction in Leelanau County for the Pistons and Red Wings. The Pistons are a popular choice to be crowned NBA Champions this summer, and the Wings well who knows. The Wings did get out of the first round, and did play pretty well, in 4 out of the 6 games. If the Dominator can hold up, they have an excellent chance in my opinion. Whatever happens Hockey Town North is buzzing with playoff excitement right now!

5. The Season Switch – Nick Edson of the Leelanau Enterprise reported last week that longtime volleyball coach Laurie Glass will be stepping down, at least for the time being, as she can’t coach and follow her daughter Alisha at Penn State because of the girls volleyball season being moved. My opinion is that it’s a shame that a few people can ruin a good thing for many. The seasons seemed to be working just fine for 99.9% of the athletes, but a couple of parents couldn’t handle their kid’s not getting scholarships.

If you want to let the me know what you think, you can always send me an email at leelanausportsguy@sportspig.com or post a comment!

I can’t imagine a better start to a college sports career than that of former Leland Comet star Alisha Glass. Glass has helped Penn State maintain their #2 ranking, start the Big Ten season 6-0, and remain undefeated for the season at 17-0.

Glass ranks seventh at 12.05 assists per game and eighth with 1.16 blocks per game. She is the only setter to be ranked among the conference leaders in both statistics.

Next up for Glass and the Nittany Lions are home matches versus Michigan on Friday and Michigan State on Saturday.

Read Glass steps up to challenge of leading No. 2 Penn State at ESPN.com

Just received this from one of my readers…

More Honors for Alisha Glass. She was voted Most Valuable Player at this weekend’s Penn State Classic Tournament. If you, or anyone, wants to read or see more, go to gopsusports.com under Women’s Volleyball —- there’s some good shots of her playing under the website’s Photo Gallery.

The Big Ten opener with Ohio State will be televised on CSTV this Wednesday at 7 p.m.—- thats on Dish or Direct TV. We have Charter Cable, so I go over to my wife’s employer who has Dish TV.

Thanks Bob!

Here’s the Official Penn State Women’s Volleyball site

Photo from GoPSUsports.com

The awards keep rolling in for freshman setter Alisha Glass. The former Leland Comet star has taken her game to Penn State, but that hasn’t stopped her from winning. The Nittany Lions are ranked #2 in the country and are off to a 8-0 start.

Here’s why she picked up the honors…

Versus the No. 7 Longhorns, Glass had a career-high 63 assists and recorded eight kills and 16 digs. She also tied her career bests for hitting (.438) and blocks (seven).

and

For the weekend, Glass averaged 13.38 assists per game, 2.88 digs per game and 1.50 blocks per game while directing the squad to a team hitting percentage of .327 with an average of 17.38 kills per game against two teams in the Top 15 in the nation. She also picked up her first career All-Tournament Team honor at the Time Warner Classic Texas Invitational.

Next up for Penn State is the Penn State Invitational on Friday and Saturday.

Read Glass Tabbed Sports Imports/AVCA Division I National Player of the Week at GoPSUsports.com
Read Glass is Big Ten player of the week in the Record Eagle

Alisha Glass had a career-high 44 assists to help Penn State to a 30-19, 30-21, 30-21 win over fifteenth-ranked Missouri in the Time Warner Cable Texas Invitational. The freshman setter also had three kills for the No. 2 Nittany Lions.

Penn State continues action against the seventh-ranked Texas Longhorns at 6:30 p.m. CT today.

Read Glass leads No. 2 Penn State in the Record Eagle
Read No. 2 Women’s Volleyball Claws No. 15 Missouri, 3-0 at GoPSUsports.com

Freshman Alisha Glass recorded 37 assists to help #2 ranked Penn State to a 30-32, 24-30, 30-23, 30-23, 15-6 win over LSU in the final of the LSU Classic. Glass has played in all 11 games and is third on the team in blocks and tied for third in digs.

Read No. 2 Penn State Women’s Volleyball Survives LSU, 3-2 at GoPSUsports.com

Is there an award she hasn’t won? Leland senior Alisha Glass has been named the Female Athlete of the Year by the Detroit Athletic Club.

Read Glass is female Athlete of the Year in the Record Eagle

Leland and Suttons Bay both had stellar volleyball seasons with the Comets capturing the Class D state title and the Norsemen making the state semifinals and both were rewarded with individual all-state honors.

In Class D Leland’s Alisha Glass, Jennifer Hecht and Whitney Grant were named to the first team while Daina Parent earned an honorable mention spot.

Suttons Bay’s Holly Orban was named to the Class C first team and teammate Kelsey Wick earned honorable mention.

Read Area nets quintet of all-staters in the Record Eagle

Leland hadn’t been in this situation much this season as they found themselves trailing Battle Creek St. Philip 2 games to none and facing elimination in the Class D Volleyball Finals. But then Alisha Glass and the Comets stepped it up to claim the state title with a 21-25, 20-25, 25-19, 25-23, 15-9 come-from-behind win. Alisha Glass set a state record with 48 kills in the championship match and Jennifer Hecht added a strong game with 22 digs.

Read Comets capture crown in the Record Eagle
Read Glass finally gets that elusive title in the Record Eagle
Listen to the MHSAA Class D Girls Volleyball Final via MHSAA EZStream
View Box Score from MHSAA
View Class D Volleyball Finals: Leland vs. St. Philip at 9&10 Sports Video Uncut

Leland powered it’s way to the Class D semis by serving up 21 aces to defeat Beal City 25-12, 25-7 and 25-15. Leading the Comets were Alisha Glass with 15 kills, 2 blocks and 7 aces, and Jennifer Hecht with 8 kills and 4 blocks. Leland is now 65-4 on the season and will face Adrian Lenawee Christian at 3:45 PM on Thursday.

Read Comets move on to semis in the Record Eagle

Leland Comet star Alisha Glass was named the winner of the 4th annual Miss Volleyball award, given to the best prep volleyball player in the state. Glass won the award by the largest margin in the short history of the award. She is heading to Penn State next fall to continue playing volleyball. Glass owns the national record for aces in a season, career aces and career kills.

Read Best of the Best in the Record Eagle
Read Glass best in state in the Free Press