Sports
Tennis Falls to No. 57 Washington State in UTR Women's NIT semifinal
DENTON — The UNT women’s tennis team fell 4-0 to No. 57 Washington State Thursday at the UTR Women’s NIT Championship in Rome, Georgia. With the loss, the Mean Green’s season comes to a close. UNT (12-12) matched last season’s win total with 12. The Cougars (19-8) took the doubles point to start the day […]


DENTON — The UNT women’s tennis team fell 4-0 to No. 57 Washington State Thursday at the UTR Women’s NIT Championship in Rome, Georgia.
With the loss, the Mean Green’s season comes to a close. UNT (12-12) matched last season’s win total with 12.
The Cougars (19-8) took the doubles point to start the day picking up wins at line one and two to clinch.
Marina Adati and Lou Chalard took a line three win for the second consecutive day at line three, winning 6-3.
Washington State carried their momentum into singles play, clinching the match with wins at line four and line one and winning at line two via a Stadfany Nformi retirement.
Before the Cougars closed the match, Carolina Laydner held a 6-4, 4-3 lead at line five and Stanislava Shulzhenko led 6-4, 5-5 at line three.
North Texas finished the regular season with a winning record for the first time since the 2018-19 campaign and finished undefeated at the Waranch Tennis Facility with an 8-0 record at the venue.
Doubles
1. Eva Alvarez Sande/Maxine Murphy (WSU) def. Lou Chalard/Lilly Schultz (UNT) 6-4
2. Chisato Kanemaki/Elyse Tse (WSU) def. Stanislava Shulzhenko/Stadfany Nformi (UNT) 6-3
3. Marina Adati/Carolina Laydner (UNT) def. Martina Puvill/Hania Abouelsaad (WST) 6-3
Singles
1. Eva Alvarez Sande (WSU) def. Gianna Pielet (UNT) 7-6, 6-3
2. Maxine Murphy (WSU) def. Stadfany Nformi (UNT) 6-2, 4-3, retired
3. Elyse Tse (WSU) vs. Stanislava Shulzhenok (UNT) 4-6, 5-5, unfinished
4. Hania Abouelsaad (WSU) def. Lou Chalard (UNT) 6-3, 6-3
5. Chisato Kanemaki (WSU) vs. Carolina Laydner (UNT) 4-6, 3-4, unfinished
6. Martina Puvill (WSU) vs. Marina Adati (UNT) 6-1, 2-6, 2-0, unfinished
Sports
Behl, Bueti, Capobianco and Goehrig Earn CSC Academic All-District Recognition
Story Links WALTHAM, Mass. – Mason Behl, Rocco Bueti, Sam Capobianco and Andrew Goehrig from the Bentley men’s track and field team earned College Sports Communicators Academic All-District recognition. The CSC Academic All-District program recognizes the nation’s top student-athletes for their combined athletic and academic performances. Capobianco advanced to the ballot […]

WALTHAM, Mass. – Mason Behl, Rocco Bueti, Sam Capobianco and Andrew Goehrig from the Bentley men’s track and field team earned College Sports Communicators Academic All-District recognition.
The CSC Academic All-District program recognizes the nation’s top student-athletes for their combined athletic and academic performances.
Capobianco advanced to the ballot for Academic All-America consideration.
Behl, a sophomore, is majoring in both data analytics and economics-finance. He specializes in the distance running events and had a top-10 finish at the NE10 Cross Country Championships in the fall.
Bueti, also a sophomore, majors in finance. He helped Bentley’s 4×800 relay team win gold at the NE10 Outdoor Championships.
Sports
Volleyball announces 2025 recruiting class
By: SU Sports Information Story Links SHIPPENSBURG, Pa. – Shippensburg University head women’s volleyball coach Leanne Piscotty has confirmed the recruitment of four student-athletes who have agreed to attend the university and suit up for the Raider program during the 2025 season. This year’s recruiting class represents four different states: […]

SHIPPENSBURG, Pa. – Shippensburg University head women’s volleyball coach Leanne Piscotty has confirmed the recruitment of four student-athletes who have agreed to attend the university and suit up for the Raider program during the 2025 season.
This year’s recruiting class represents four different states: Pennsylvania, Maryland, Indiana and Texas.
“We are very excited about the potential and impact these young women will bring to our program. We believe they will be great additions to our team culture and competitive spirit,” Piscotty noted.
The quartet will join a group that finished the 2024 season with 17 wins, including an 11-3 mark inside the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) Eastern Division.
The recruits are as follows (in alphabetical order):
Elise Bragg
Freshman • OH/RS
Bowie, Md./Elizabeth Seton
Elizabeth Seton High School: Totaled four varsity letters for the Roadrunners…competed at the club level for Maryland Juniors Volleyball Club…two-time All-Washington Catholic Athletic Association (WCAC) Honorable Mention…amassed 550 kills…ranked the No. 21 player in Maryland…maintained a 3.6 GPA.
About Bragg: Full name is Elise Bragg.
Mya Davis
Freshman • OH
Etna Green, Ind./Triton
Triton Junior/Senior High School: Totaled four varsity letters for the Trojans under head coach Derrek Eveland…competed at the club level for Pineapple High Performance under coach Will Robbins and for Dunes Volleyball Club…2024 Indiana High School Volleyball Coaches Association (IHSVCA) Senior All-Star Team…2024 IHSVCA All-District…2024 Hoosier North Athletic Conference (HNAC) All-Conference Team…led team to 2024 HNAC Championship…team MVP…compiled 575 kills, a .292 hit percentage, 90 aces, 60 blocks and 225 digs as a senior…finished sixth in Indiana and third in Class 1A for total kills and No. 10 in 1A in total aces…broke school single-season record for kills and aces…2023 IHSVCA Junior All-Star Team…American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Phenom List and Junior Volleyball Association (JVA) Watch List (2022-23)…Sectional Championship as a freshman…high honor roll student…2024 Academic All-State…two-time Academic All-Conference (2023-24)…2022 AAU Academic All-American.
About Davis: Full name is Mya Davis…is the daughter of James and Ashley Davis…has three brothers: Quentin, Ty and Wyatt.
Augusta DeVos
Freshman • OH/RS
York, Pa./Central York
Central York High School: Totaled three varsity letters for the Panthers under coaches Nate Ocasio and Jess Feldman…competed at the club level for Yorktowne Volleyball Club under coaches Josh Brenneman, Maggie Altland and Kelsey Fuller…a two-time All-York Adams Interscholastic Athletic Association (YAIAA) selection, including First Team as a senior…scored 335 points her senior season…honor roll student…participated in JROTC, where she won the Leadership Award, Outstanding Cadet (twice) and Top Performer (twice).
About DeVos: Full name is Augusta Kristen DeVos…is the daughter of Keith and Jennifer DeVos…has a brother, Ian, and a sister, Leah.
Addison Haley
Freshman • DS/OH
Allen, Tex./Allen
Allen High School: Lettered for the Eagles under head coach Stephanie Pool…competed at the club level for 1 United Volleyball Club under coach Ko Oudomvilay…named Academic All-District as a senior.
About Haley: Full name is Addison Marie Haley…is the daughter of Darren and Heather Haley…has a brother, Gavin.
Sports
Long Beach State Welcomes Michael Ma to Women’s Volleyball Staff
LONG BEACH, Calif. — Michael Ma, a veteran club and high school volleyball coach with experience at the collegiate level, has been hired as an assistant coach for the Long Beach State women’s volleyball program, the school announced June 25. Ma arrives at Long Beach State after successful stints coaching at Saint Joseph High School, […]

Ma arrives at Long Beach State after successful stints coaching at Saint Joseph High School, Seal Beach Volleyball Club, and Westcliff University. A 2016 graduate of Cal State Long Beach, Ma returns to his Alma mater with a résumé that includes multiple league titles, national club medals, and a strong track record in player development and recruiting.
Ma most recently served as head girls’ coach and assistant athletic director at Saint Joseph High School in Lakewood, where he led the Jesters to back-to-back Del Rey League championships in 2023 and 2024. The team posted a combined 46–19 record under his leadership, and six players earned all-league honors during that stretch.
In addition to his high school success, Ma is the founder of Michael Ma’s Elite Training Academy, where he has helped guide more than 30 student-athletes to collegiate volleyball programs. He has also been a longtime coach and recruiting coordinator for Seal Beach Volleyball Club, where his teams have captured nine national medals, including gold at the 2024 USA Volleyball Girls Junior National Championship in the 15 Freedom Division.
At the collegiate level, Ma spent two seasons as an assistant coach at Westcliff University (NAIA), helping lead the Warriors to a 21–8 record and a runner-up finish in the California Pacific Conference in 2022. He also served as a volunteer assistant at Arizona in 2019, working with liberos and defensive specialists. That season, Arizona’s starting libero broke the school record for digs by a freshman and earned two Pac-12 Freshman of the Week honors.
Sports
Ukrainian Swimmer Igor Chervynskiy, 3x World Championship Medalist, Injured in War with Russia
World Championship medalist and two-time Ukrainian Olympian Igor Chervynskiy has been “seriously wounded” in his country’s ongoing war with Russia, the Ukrainian Swimming Federation and fellow Olympian Sergiy Fesenko report to SwimSwam. The 43-year-old was serving a combat mission on the front lines of the ongoing war when he was injured. While the exact nature of […]

World Championship medalist and two-time Ukrainian Olympian Igor Chervynskiy has been “seriously wounded” in his country’s ongoing war with Russia, the Ukrainian Swimming Federation and fellow Olympian Sergiy Fesenko report to SwimSwam.
The 43-year-old was serving a combat mission on the front lines of the ongoing war when he was injured. While the exact nature of his injury has not been described, a photo shows him in a hospital bed with bandages on both legs and a metal medical device on his left leg. Fesenko says that he was hit by munitions dropped from a Russian drone.


Courtesy: Ukrainian Swimming Federation
Chervynskiy was born in Kharkiv, Ukraine, the country’s 6th largest-city with a pre-war population of 1.4 million. He was born there in 1981 when it was part of the USSR. That city near the Russian border has been a focal point of fighting in the war; as of April 2024, the Ukrainian government reported that almost a quarter of the city had been damaged or destroyed.
Chervynskiy was the 2003 World Championship silver medalist in the 1500 free and bronze medalist in the 800 free in Barcelona, part of Ukraine’s great distance swimming tradition. He was also the 1999 (SCM) and 2000 (LCM) European Champion in the 1500 free, two of five European medals in that event; a three-time World University Games Champion, the 2000 World Short Course Championship runner-up; and a three-time European Junior Champion in 1998 and 1999.
Prior to the start of the war, he was working as a swim coach at the youth sports school Spartak. Last year, at 42, and after two years of serving in the war, he won the Ukrainian Championship in the 5,000-meter swim in a 50 meter pool.
Fesenko called Chervynskiy “the hero of Ukraine” and is spearheading a fundraising effort to get him to the United States for rehabilitation (details here). Fesenko has been active in several war relief efforts, including convincing the Indian government to send war supplies to Ukraine, and finding avenues for young Ukrainian swimmers to train in other countries using relationships formed during his own elite swimming career.
Fesenko was on the 2004 Olympic Team with Chervynskiy and his father, Sergey Fesenko senior, was a 1980 Olympic gold medalist in the 200 fly for the USSR. Fesenko currently lives in the United States.
Fesenko says that he is one of three known national swimmers who are currently fighting for Ukraine in the war.
With war engulfing the nation, including estimates of around 700,000 Ukrainians currently actively fighting at the front, several athletes have been involved in the war. Earlier this month, former Ukrainian National Team hockey player Oleksandr Matviychuk was seriously injured after being shot; Eugine Obendinskiy, ex-captain of the Ukrainian National Water Polo Team, was killed in a bombing; and a Ukrainian National Swimming Team coach spent two hours trapped under rubble when a building she was sheltering under was hit by a missile.
Estimates of total fatalities from the war vary widely by source, but recent estimates by the US-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies reports that Russia has suffered approximately 250,000 deaths and 950,000 casualties in the war since the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, while Ukraine has sustained an estimated 60,00-100,000 killed and up to 400,000 total casualties, including injured.
Photographs
Fesenko provided these photographs via Chervynskiy; SwimSwam could not verify the authenticity of the pictures.


Courtesy Igor Chervynski/Sergey Fesenko


Courtesy Igor Chervynski/Sergey Fesenko


Courtesy Igor Chervynski/Sergey Fesenko


Courtesy Igor Chervynski/Sergey Fesenko


Courtesy Igor Chervynski/Sergey Fesenko


Courtesy Igor Chervynski/Sergey Fesenko


Courtesy Igor Chervynski/Sergey Fesenko
Sports
Llewellyn, Nichols, Meier, Lyness, and Kaster named to Academic All-District squad
Story Links CSC Men’s Cross Country/Track & Field Academic All-District Teams NORTHFIELD, Minn. – The Carleton College men’s cross country and track & field programs had the maximum five student-athletes selected to the College Sports Communicators (CSC) Academic All-District Team for 2024-25. […]

NORTHFIELD, Minn. – The Carleton College men’s cross country and track & field programs had the maximum five student-athletes selected to the College Sports Communicators (CSC) Academic All-District Team for 2024-25.
Roy Llewellyn ’26 and Gabe Nichols ’26 took home their second consecutive honor, while Josh Meier ’25, Indy Lyness ’26, and Soren Kaster ’27 secured Academic All-District recognition for the first time.
To be nominated for the Academic All-District Team, a student-athlete must have a cumulative grade point average of at least 3.50; must be at least a sophomore in academic and athletic standing; and must have turned in a top-50 individual performance in the region (for cross country, this would be at the regional meet, for track & field, this would be based off of TFRRS performance list rankings for the region.)
Llewellyn, a linguistics and Spanish double major, ranked inside the North Region’s top-50 in three events this year: 24th in cross country (25:07.6), 44th in the outdoor 10,000-meter run (32:16.36), and 47th in the outdoor 5000-meter run (14:54.68). He secured his second career All-Region award after placing 24th at the North Region Cross Country Championships and was an individual qualifier for the NCAA Cross Country Championships where he finished 157th. Llewellyn has collected nine All-MIAC awards – including two conference relay titles – along with All-Conference Honorable Mention on two occasions.
Nichols, a political science and international relations major, also raced as an individual qualifier at the NCAA Cross Country Championships, finished 125th overall. He ranked inside the region’s top-25 in five events: 10th in the indoor 3000-meter run (8:18.19), 14th in both the indoor mile (4:13.01) and outdoor 1500-meter run (3:51.40), 17th in cross country (25:00.7), and 23rd in the outdoor 5000-meter run (14:34.50). Nichols is a five-time All-Region honoree, including cross country this past fall. He is a six-time MIAC champion, including the 2025 conference title for the outdoor 5000-meter run. Nichols has earned All-MIAC status 14 times in his career in addition to another three All-Conference Honorable Mention performances.
Meier, a computer science major, ranked in the region’s top-20 in three events last year. He was 16th for the indoor 800-meter distance (1:55.75) and raced for Carleton’s indoor (3:26.55) and outdoor (3:18.78) 4×400-meter relays that both ranked 11th in the region. Meier earned All-MIAC recognition 12 times in his career, including four All-Conference nods — with a conference title in the indoor 800-meter run on his résumé — plus eight All-Conference Honorable Mention performances.
After not competing during the indoor track season, Lyness ranked 47th in the region for the outdoor 800-meter run (1:55.82). The computer science and mathematics double major has won three conference track titles in his career and has taken home All-MIAC recognition 11 times, including the All-Conference award seven times plus All-Conference Honorable Mention four times.
Kaster, a computer science major, ranked inside the region’s top-25 in five events this year. He was 12th in the indoor heptathlon, breaking the school record with a total f 4,745 points. He was 14th in the outdoor decathlon (6,121 points), 19th for the indoor pole vault (4.56m) and 22nd in the outdoor pole vault (4.55m) and javelin (50.17m). He was the MIAC runner-up in both the heptathlon and indoor pole vault before taking fourth in the decathlon. Overall, he owns All-MIAC recognition five times in his career.
Nichols was selected to advance to the national ballot with first-, second- and third-team Academic All-America® honorees to be announced July 16, 2025.
Sports
Nebraska Volleyball Coach Dani Busboom Kelly to Light Cornhusker State Games Cauldron
Olympians, Super Bowl champions, and now Dani Busboom Kelly. The new Nebraska volleyball coach is set to be the torch lighter for the 41st Cornhusker State Games. The moment, which will take place next month, will mark a full-circle moment for Busboom Kelly, who competed in the Games in her youth. The cauldron will be […]

Olympians, Super Bowl champions, and now Dani Busboom Kelly.
The new Nebraska volleyball coach is set to be the torch lighter for the 41st Cornhusker State Games. The moment, which will take place next month, will mark a full-circle moment for Busboom Kelly, who competed in the Games in her youth.
The cauldron will be lit on July 10, just outside of Pinnacle Bank Arena in Lincoln. The lighting is the the climax of the Opening Ceremonies, celebrating an Olympic tradition.
Prominent Nebraska athletes litter the former torch lighters list, including a number of Husker volleyball players. Busboom Kelly, besides being the fourth coach in program history, helped Nebraska to a national title in 2006 as a libero.
Other Nebraska volleyball players to light the cauldron for the Cornhusker State Games include Rebekah Allick, Nicklin Hames, Amber & Kadie Rolfzen, Sarah Pavan, Jordan Larson, Kim Behrends-Buckendahl, Angie Oxley, and Allison Weston.
The lighting ceremony will be the latest in a busy summer for Busboom Kelly and the Cornhusker program. She took over for John Cook earlier this year, when Cook retired after 25 years at the helm. Since then, the Huskers have gone through a beach volleyball season, played a match at the Devaney Center and another in Ord, and signed multiple players to aid the team this fall.
Nebraska’s season begins with the AVCA First Serve Showcase at Pinnacle Bank Arena Aug. 22 and 24, taking on Pittsburgh and Stanford.
The 2025 Cornhusker State Games run July 10-20, with events in communities statewide. This year’s Games will also be featured in ESPN’s “50 States in 50 Days” series.
Below are past torch lighters for the Cornhusker State Games.
Have a question or comment for Kaleb? Send an email to kalebhenry.huskermax@gmail.com.
Stay up to date on all things Huskers by bookmarking Nebraska Cornhuskers On SI, subscribing to HuskerMax on YouTube, and visiting HuskerMax.com daily.
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