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Magic City Thunder
Volleyball Club

418 New Hope Mountain Road
Pelham, AL
35124

This section of the website will be updated once the 2009 Magic City Thunder season begins. Please check back for updates....

Mieke Grootthuizen (18s) named Scholar-Athlete of the Week

Tortorici Named Defensive Player of the Week

Magic City Alumni Named C-USA Offensive Player of the Week

18s Win Club Regionals!

MIEKE GROOTHUIZEN, CHELSEA HIGH SCHOOL, SCHOLAR-ATHLETE OF THE WEEK

Year: senior; Sport: volleyball Academic highlights: Mieke has a 4.28 GPA and scored a 34 on the ACT. She is a member of the National Honor Society, National French Honor Society, Beta Club, Mu Alpha Theta, Scholar's Bowl, Chelsea Leadership, Shelby County Senior Advisory Council and National Merit Semifinalist. She is also the yearbook editor. Athletic highlights: Mieke plays outside hitter and opposite for the Hornets. She is a four-year varsity starter, was named Most Improved Player (2007) and is part of the Magic City Thunder 18 Club Region Champion team (2008). Where do you see your academic future? I plan to attend college in the fall to study engineering. I am still undecided as far as where I will be going and which engineering degree I would like to pursue. Where do you see your athletic future? I hope to play intramural or club sports in college. Favorite subject: Math, I love that everything has a definite answer. I also enjoy problem solving and figuring out word problems. I always feel a sense of accomplishment looking down at a page long calculus problem and knowing I found the correct answer. Who has been a major positive influence on you? My club volleyball coach, Danielle Graff. She pushed our team hard and I feel like not only did she make me a better volleyball player, she also helped me look inside myself to become a better, stronger person. What is your favorite sports memory? My favorite sports memory has to be the time we came back from two games down against our rivals, Shelby County. The football team was having a game, but they were rained out so everyone came to the volleyball game. People had their bodies painted, signs made, and cheered us back into it. It was great to have a comeback win with a large group of students there supporting us. What's on your iPod? I like a variety of music. My iPod has music from Say Anything, My Chemical Romance, The White Stripes, Paramore, Snow Patrol, Keane, One Republic, Fall Out Boy, Queen, and AC/DC, just to name a few. Leah Ingram Eagle --

Congrats to Mieke and her family, we are so proud of her and wish the best for her in the future!

Tortorici Named Defensive Player of the Week

Senior middle hitter Monika Tortorici of the University of Montevallo volleyball team (9-3) was named Gulf South Conference East Division Defensive Player of the Week. Tortorici had a stellar tournament this past weekend as she had a team-high 22 blocks over four matches. Tortorici currently ranks first in the conference in blocks per game (1.18). She also played well offensively registering 35 kills and a .276 attack percentage. This is Tortorici’s third honor as she was named East Defensive Player of the Week during her freshman and sophomore campaigns and it’s the second player of the week honor for Montevallo. Congrats to Monika! We are so proud of you. Monika is the former teammate of Casey Dent, who recently named C-USA Player of the Week.

Magic City Alumni Named C-USA Offensive Player of the Week

This past week Casey Dent, right side hitter for UAB leads was announced as player of the week! Dent racked up 35 kills and a .453 hitting percentage over the weekend as she helped the Blazers to five-set wins over East Carolina and Marshall in conference play. In Friday's 3-2 victory over East Carolina, Dent led all players in the match with a career-high 21 kills, while hitting at a .559 clip. Sunday, in a 3-2 win over Marshall, the senior continued her strong play with 14 kills and a .333 hitting percentage.

Dent has hit for a high percentage her entire career and ranks second all-time at UAB with a .331 career percentage. Her .398 percentage so far in 2008 ranks 19th nationally. Dent has not hit worse than .333 in any of her past 12 matches. Dent also added five blocks and six assists in the two wins over the weekend.

Way to go Casey! We are so proud of you!

18s win Club Regionals!

It has been a rollercoaster season for this 18s team. With players ranging from 15-18, these girls had a lot of obstacles to over come as they learned to play with a whole new group of teammates. BUT this really has been one of the best seasons that this team has seen and that these girls have had. Everyone on the team had such an impact on the court that it really took the whole team to pull off winning 18 Club regionals!! With 3 seniors leading the way, the rest stepped it up as well. Krystal Robinson was such a force in the front row, pegging 4 opponents in the head with her hits!! Emily Lawson stepped up and took charge with her setting and dominating with her dumps. Jessica Colyer also had a huge impact by stepping in the role of middle again and making huge plays. Jamie Patterson, the most consistent server on the team, helped the team back into the game after being down a few points and had major digs. She was also key in the front row. Letty Barbi stepped it up with major kills and great defense in the backrow. Mieke G. finally took that swing we all knew she had in her and was a huge hitter in the finals, giving her team that pick me up with her serving as well! Brittany Y. stepped it up big time in the frontrow the first day to help MCT win a huge 3rd game. Of course, none of our hitters could have been successful without the great passing and defense of Mandy Hartley. The youngest player on the team stepped it up and played like a champ, taking some hard hits and saving some butts on coverage. Overall, I could not have been more proud of these girls!

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