OAKBROOK TERRACE, ILL., May 8, 2002_ Four United States Professional
Volleyball (USPV) athletes have been selected to the U.S. Women's National
Team.
Minnesota Chill athletes Wiz Bachman (UCLA), Nicole Branagh (University of
Minnesota), Addie Mahnken (University of the Pacific), along with Chicago
Thunder standout Kristee Porter (UCLA) will join the training team in
Colorado Springs, Colo.
beginning Monday. With those additions, 22 USPV athletes have now trained at
one time with the National Team.
Both Bachman and Branagh are on their second tour of duty with the National
Team. Bachman had 32 kills and 15 stuff blocks in 74 sets, while Branagh
recorded 62 kills and 17 aces in 50 sets.
This year, Bachman averaged 11.2 points (2.96 per game), 7.1 kills (1.87 per
game) and 3.5 blocks (0.9 per game) per match for Minnesota, which defeated
Chicago to win the first USPV Championship.
Branagh, who was the runner-up in the USPV MVP voting and was named the 2002
USPV Championship Series MVP, averaged 16.4 points (4.3 per game), 13.9
kills (3.7 per game), 1.28 aces (0.3 per game) and 6.3 digs (1.68 per game)
during the regular season. Branagh, who set the all-time Big Ten kills
record while at Minnesota, also averaged 18.6 points (4.2 per game) and 15.9
kills (3.6 per game) in the postseason.
Mahnken was named the 2002 USPV Outstanding Libero and averaged a
league-best 12.7 digs (3.4 per game) for the Chill.
Porter, a two-time All-American selection while at UCLA, was 2002 USPV
Offensive Player of the Year, scoring a league-best 345.5 points in the
regular season. Porter averaged a league-bests in points at 19.2 (4.7 per
game) and kills at 16.1 (3.9 per game). Porter also averaged 1.3 aces (0.3
per game) and 9.9 digs (2.4 per game). She holds three different individual
single-match league records.
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