Metro-east played role in national volleyball title

Ellen Bruegge has won volleyball state championships in grade school and high school, and her club team won a national title for their age group.

None of those triumphs, however, compared to the euphoria Bruegge felt after Washington University captured the NCAA Division III national volleyball championship on Saturday night.

"This one is the best by far," said Bruegge, a senior middle hitter from Mater Dei. "High school was awesome because my sister was on the team and it was just so much fun. This one felt so much different.

"It felt so much more satisfying considering how hard we had to work for it because of the season that we had."

Bruegge was part of a strong metro-east contingent that included junior outside hitter Alli Alberts (Freeburg), sophomore middle hitter Erin Albers (Althoff) and assistant coaches Charlie Rodman (Belleville West) and Erin Noble (Belleville West). They helped steer the Bears (33-5) to their record ninth Division III national title.

Bruegge, Alberts and Albers all started for the Bears, which beat the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater 30-25, 23-30, 30-22, 28-30, 15-13 in the title match at Illinois Weslyan University in Bloomington.

"It was awesome," said Albers, who had 16 kills and two blocks in the title match. "There was nothing like that feeling. I don't even know how to describe it. I don't think any of us expected it, but that's what makes it that much better and mean that much more.

"We improved so much and we had to work hard to get it. We didn't have it handed to us like some teams did."

Alberts, who was named the Most Valuable Player of the national tournament, said sheer grit allowed the fourth-seeded Bears to pull off the shocker.

"There was no way we were the best team in that tournament," said Alberts, who banged home 15 kills against Wisconsin-Whitewater. "But because we had more heart than anybody else, that's the only reason we won."

Nothing that happened at the start of the season pointed to a national title run for Washington University.

The Bears were sitting at 7-4 on Sept. 15 after a three-match losing streak to Junita College, the University of La Verne and Wisconsin-Whitewater. The lineup was in constant flux. Albers, who was recovering from shoulder surgery, and Bruegge, who had been playing outside, were inserted as the two middle hitters.

Bruegge, who had back issues and needed a cortisone shot in her shoulder, hadn't played the middle in two years.

"We had parents telling us 'It's going to be a long season,'" said Bruegge, who won state titles at All-Saints Academy and Mater Dei High in Breese, and a national title with Southwest Illinois Volleyball Club. "It was real shaky at first."

The Bears righted quickly righted their ship, winning 26 of their last 27 matches. They won 20 straight before their only other loss of the season, a five-game heartbreaker to Emory University at the UAA Championships on Nov. 3.

Washington University closed with six straight wins, beating three of the teams -- Emory, Wittenberg University and Wisconsin-Whitewater -- it had lost to during the regular season.

"We went into the playoffs with nothing to lose," Bruegge said. "Everyone on this team worked so hard for it. Out of all the teams we played we weren't the best, but we worked the hardest. I think we wanted it more than any other team. We were ferocious. I've never been on a team where everyone is that intense and that emotional."

Nobody was more intense than Alberts, who was still hoarse on Tuesday from all the yelling she did over the weekend.

Alberts, a track standout in the heptathlon for the Bears, said her MVP award could have been split 17 ways among her teammates.

"Everyone was amazing," Alberts said. "We were hitting on all cylinders is what I like to say. Our middles were on and so were our outsides. We were all just on and were all just flowing."

Alberts (346 kills), Albers (245 kills) and Bruegge (224 kills) finished as the Nos. 3, 4 and 5 hitters for the Bears, who used a quote from the movie "A League Of Their Own," as their battlecry.

"The quote was 'The hard is what makes it great,'" Alberts said. "At the beginning of the year, it really didn't make sense. We had to play all these rough teams the entire season, it was so hard for us to even make it to the championship match.

"In the end, that's what made it great and that's what made the victory so amazing."

* Contact reporter Rod Kloeckner at rkloeckner@bnd.com or 239-2663.

GRAPHIC: Div. III Volleyball Finals at Illinois Wesleyan's Shirk Center in Bloomington, Ill. Final match: Washington University in St. Louis vs. University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. Junior Alli Alberts garnered the Most Valuable Players honors of the 2007 NCAA Division III Volleyball Championship. (Joe Angeles)

Copyright 2007 Belleville News-Democrat

•	Metro-east played role in national volleyball title Belleville News-Democrat (IL), Wednesday, Nov. 21, 2007 Byline: Rod Kloeckner, News-Democrat

	Story also ran in 1 others:  McClatchy-Tribune News Service