March 02, 2001
Texas A&M volleyball coach Laurie Corbelli's 2000-01 recruiting class is ranked 10th in the nation according to StudentSports.com.
"The Aggies did well in California, picking up two players from two of the best high school programs in the country," Kim Blankinship and Greg Biggins stated in their article regarding the ranking. "Setter Lexy Beers, [5-9 setter, Mira Costa High School, Manhattan, Beach, Calif.] and middle blocker Carrie Moreira [5-11, St. Mary's High School, Stockton, Calif.] are talented and know what it takes to win."
Corbelli also signed two highly touted Texans, Kendra Felder, a 6-1 middle blocker from Corpus Christi (Calallen) and Melissa Munsch, a 6-2 middle blocker from Columbus.
Beers and Moreira earned high school All-American honors from both FoxStudentSports.com and StudentSports.com this past season, and Felder and Munsch were each named to the Texas Sports Writers Association all-state team.
Beers, who also was named a Volleyball Magazine Fab 50, directed the Mustangs to a 33-2 record this past season and a No. 2 national ranking by FoxSports.com and a No. 7 ranking by Vball.com. Mira Costa won the CIF Southern Section Division I title and advanced to the California state semifinals before falling to eventual state champion and No. 1- ranked Bonita Vista High School (Chula Vista, Calif.).
Moreira led the Rams to the Nor-Cal Division I championship and a runner-up finish in the state tournament. She was named to the All-Championship Team after posting 18 kills in the title game in which the Rams fell to No. 1- ranked Bonita Vista in five games. St. Mary's finished the season with a 35-4 record and ranked sixth in the nation by Vball.com and eighth in the country according to FoxSports.com.
Felder has demonstrated her athletic prowess as a decorated three-sport athlete at Calallen High School. Felder, who also competes in basketball and track and field, led the Wildcats to three consecutive volleyball state regional semifinal appearances. As a sophomore, she collected District 31-4A MVP Offensive Player laurels, and in 1999 she was named the outstanding High School Athlete of the Year for Class 4A in volleyball and collected all-district and district top offensive player honors for the second consecutive season. Felder was named to the TSWA second team and was the District 31-4A Most valuable Player as a senior.
Munsch is an accomplished five-sport athlete at Columbus High School, having participated in basketball, softball, cross country and track, in addition to volleyball. The 6-2 middle blocker was named District 22-3A Newcomer of the Year as a freshman and collected district MVP and Texas Sports Writer's All-State first-team accolades as both a sophomore and junior while leading the Lady Cardinals to the state regional finals. Her club team, Texas Elite, was the silver champion at the 1999 Junior Olympics.
Corbelli loses three players, including starting middle blocker Heather Marshall and top defensive specialist Christy Clark, from the 2000 team, that tied for second in the Big 12 Conference and advanced to the second round of the NCAA tournament. The Aggies finished the season with a 20-9 record and a No. 23 ranking in the final Top 25 Poll.
The following is StudentSports.com's list of the nation's top 10 recruiting classes:
USC
Nebraska
Florida
Stanford
UCLA
Long Beach State
Pacific
UC Santa Barbara
Hawai'i
Texas A&M