Lakeshia Craft, Tarona Williams sign with volleyball
4/20/2010 6:51:00 AM | Women's Volleyball, Athletics
Lakeshia Craft and Tarona Williams each have signed letters-of-intent to attend Sam Houston State and play volleyball for head coach Brenda Gray.
Craft, a 6'0" middle blocker, is a transfer from Blinn College where she was coached by David Rehr. She was a standout high school player at Pflugerville Connally high school where she played for former Bearkat Christi Drier. Craft earned second team all-district honors in high school. She played for Texas Eclipse Juniors club team in high school.
She was All Region XIV First team in 2008, and NJCAA All-National Tournament in 2008, when Blinn won the NJCAA Division I National Championship. Craft ranked No. 19 in the country in 2009 in hitting percentage, hitting at .410 clip, averaging 2.24 kills per set and 0.88 blocks per set as their starting Middle Blocker in 2008 and 2009. She will graduate from Blinn in May with her AA degree and will enroll at Sam Houtston this summer.
Williams, a 5'11" middle blocker, is a senior at Fresno Hightower High School where she played for coach Melissa Hoffman. She plays club volleyball for Houston Southwest Heat. She was a second team All-District selection in 2009.
"Lakeshia brings us needed experience in filling our middle blocker position with Anna Ferguson graduating," Gray said. "She's from a wonderful program at Blinn, and she's a national champion. We don't normally sign a lot of junior college players, but we felt she could help us the most and will be a tremendous addition to our program. She has a great vertical, good size and moves well laterally. She is great off of one foot, which will bode very well in our system.
" Tarona was a late find for us in the recruiting process, but what a great athlete. With time she will be able to contribute to the program, a strong student in the classroom, she is great example of a student athlete. She also has a tremendous vertical, touching close to 10 feet, and is very quick. She will be another great addition to our program, and finishes our needs in the middle.
"As we were looking to complete our roster for the fall, we needed to secure a couple middles to go along with our returning junior middle, Kim Black, and our early signee, Freshman Haley Neisler from Double Oak, Texas and playing for the TAV 18 Blue team, which just qualified for the Junior Olympics National Championship tournament this past weekend in the Dallas Qualifier. Expect a couple more additions to our roster, but we feel very confident with the team we are putting on the floor in August. We will be ready to defend our home court when we host the 2010 Southland Conference Tournament in November."
