Holz an all-timer at NYU
Hope everyone enjoys a happy and prosperous 2024.
Now, on to our College Achievers...
Haley Holz (Palatine), a senior outside hitter for the New York University women’s volleyball team, earned her second straight first-team Division III All-America honor by the American Volleyball Coaches Association. An Academic All-District selection as well, Holz led the 33-5 Violets to a second straight Final Four trip and second University Athletic Association title in three years. Second-team All-America in 2021, Holz this year had 439 kills and 1,543 over her four years at NYU, second all-time. She leads the Violets with 4,389 attack attempts and is third in points scored with 1,847.
Trevor Burnett (Glenbard South), a 5-foot-10, 190-pound redshirt freshman running back, capped the scoring in Iowa Western’s 61-14 win over East Mississippi to win the National Junior College Athletic Association Division I football national title on Dec. 13 in Little Rock, Ark. Burnett carried the ball for a pair of 20-yard runs before breaking to a 26-yard touchdown run that ended the 12-1 Reivers’ second straight national title. On the season Burnett’s 225 yards rushing equated to 5 yards a carry.
We wrote about him during Aurora University’s football run in the Division III playoffs, but Eagles quarterback Ian Luyando (Buffalo Grove) was named offensive player of the year in the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference. The 6-foot-1 junior completed 169 of 258 passes (66%) for 2,492 yards, 39 touchdowns to 6 interceptions, and ran for 491 yards, 3 touchdowns. He was sixth in the nation in passing efficiency (191.87), tied for seventh in passing touchdowns and points accounted-for per game, and 10th in yards per pass attempt.
Aurora University senior receiver Trey Madsen (Aurora Christian) earned all-conference honors after catching 53 passes for 838 yards and 15 touchdowns. Former Aurora Christian coach Don Beebe headed the NACC coaching staff of the year.
In other NACC news, Aurora’s Deedee Colon Maldonado (East Aurora) was named the conference women’s cross country athlete of the year. The junior biology and communications major, named NACC freshman of the year in 2021, Maldonado won two regular-season meets plus the individual title at the NACC Championships for her third top-three conference finish. She placed 29th to earn All-America honors at the Division III national meet in Newville, Pa.
Angela Dugalic (Maine West) is a starting forward for the UCLA women’s basketball team, which entering Saturday’s game against USC was 11-0 and ranked No. 2 in NCAA Division I by The Associated Press. The 2020 Illinois Gatorade player of the year at Maine West, who transferred from Oregon after the 2020-21 season, the 6-foot-4 senior was averaging 9.4 points and 6.1 rebounds. She scored 16 points with 8 rebounds in a season-high 33 minutes in a 95-78 win over Florida State on Dec. 10.
At DePauw University in Greencastle, Ind., where the Tigers football team went 10-0 in the regular season for the first time in 136 seasons, senior defensive lineman Ben Burger (Wheaton Warrenville South) earned the “Battle of the Trenches” award, and offensive lineman Bennett Smith (Maine South) won Freshman Award. Senior defensive back Tommy Ryan (IC Catholic) received the DePauw’s Kenneth Brooks Holland Memorial Award recognizing him as a scholar-athlete. Ryan, whose 11 tackles led the Tigers in their Division III playoff loss to Alma, is a four-year honor roll student in communications while earning four letters in football.