Whitewater squad has plenty of Fox Valley personality

The University of Wisconsin-Whitewater women’s basketball team has a distinct Fox Valley area feel to it this season.

The Warhawks start three former Daily Herald All-Area girls’ basketball team selections in Cortney Kumerow (South Elgin), Katie Burton (Crystal Lake South) and Lisa Palmer (Bartlett).

All three have played key roles in Whitewater starting the season an impressive 10-3 overall, which includes a perfect 4-0 mark in conference play to start the week.

Kumerow is the team’s leading scorer at 14.2 points per game. She’s started all 13 games, averaging 28.7 minutes of playing time. Kumerow is shooting .560 from the field and .865 from the free-throw line (45 of 52). She’s also averaging 7.5 rebounds.

Kumerow scored 15 points and added 5 rebounds in the team’s late December win over Millsaps (83-70). She also had 10 points and 10 rebounds in a 58-49 win over Millikin.

To start the week, Kumerow had three double-doubles and scored a season-high 23 points against UW-Eau Claire earlier in the season.

Burton also has started all of the team’s first 13 games and is averaging 9.0 points and 4.3 rebounds. She’s averaging 26.2 minutes of playing time and is shooting .415 from the field and .773 from the free-throw line (17-for-22). She also has 21 assists and 14 steals.

Burton had 16 points and 5 rebounds in the win over Millsaps and had six points in the Millikin victory.

In her 13 starts, Palmer is averaging 5.9 points and 5.6 rebounds. In an average of 23.9 minutes per game, she’s shooting .586 from the field. Palmer also has 15 steals. She had 8 points and 7 rebounds in the Millsaps win and 6 points and 8 rebounds in the Millikin victory.

Earlier, Kumerow was named the UW-Whitewater Walmart player of the week. During the award time frame, Kumerow shot .583 from the field (7-for-12) and finished with 14 points and 6 rebounds in a 72-69 loss to defending NCAA Division III champion Illinois Wesleyan.

In a conference-opening win against UW-Stout, Kumerow had 18 points and 10 rebounds and shot 7-for-13 from the field and 4-for-4 from the free-throw line.

Gulczynski at Wisconsin: Bartlett graduate Jaci Gulczynski had a big game for the University of Wisconsin women’s basketball team in its recent 69-50 nonconference win over previously unbeaten Alabama at the Kohl Center in Madison.

Gulczynski recorded a career-high 8 rebounds and a career-best five assists. She also finished with 7 points.

To start the week, Gulczynski had started all 13 of the Badgers’ games thus far. In an average of 28.1 minutes of playing time, she’s averaging 10.2 points to go with 6.1 rebounds per game. She’s third on the team in scoring. Gulczynski is shooting .437 from the field, .438 from the 3-point line (14-for-32) and .882 from the free-throw line. She also has 24 assists against only 21 turnovers, as well as 7 blocks and 8 steals.

At the recent Miami (Fla.) invitational, she had 14 points and 9 rebounds in 34 minutes in an 83-54 win over Delaware State. She also had a team-high 16 points to go with 6 rebounds in a 67-40 loss to Miami.

Wisconsin is 8-6 after a 70-52 loss to Nebraska in the Big Ten Conference opener last night.

Gal honored: Former Bartlett boys’ soccer player Jeff Gal was named to the TopDrawerSoccer.com all-freshman team of the season. Gal is a freshman goalie at Creighton University in Omaha.

Gal started 15 games for Creighton and posted an impressive 0.65 goals-against average. He faced 166 shots and allowed only 10 goals, while making 57 saves. He ended his freshman season with a 13-1-1 mark and was credited with 7 shutouts. Creighton finished the year 17-4-3 and went 5-0-1 in conference play.

Brown at North Dakota State: Elgin alum Kory Brown has been a contributor to the successful North Dakota State men’s basketball team. To begin the week, Brown had started all 14 of the team’s games. Brown is averaging 4.4 points and 3.2 rebounds in 24.6 minutes of playing time per contest. He is shooting .488 from the field, .444 from the 3-point line and .800 from the free-throw stripe (16-for-20). He also has 27 assists against 17 turnovers and has logged 8 blocks and 11 steals for a North Dakota State team that was 11-3 overall and 2-0 in conference play to begin the week.

Holthus honored again: Burlington Central product Stephanie Holthus earned some big accolades recently.

Holthus, now an outside hitter for the Northwestern University women’s volleyball team was named to the American Volleyball Coaches Association All-America third-team, a list regarded as the gold standard in women’s college volleyball circles as voted on by association coaches. Holthus is the fourth player in Wildcat program history to earn a national All-America accolade.

“Stephanie is very deserving of this honor,” Northwestern coach Keylor Chan told the athletic department’s website. “She has put a great deal of time and effort to improve her volleyball every year and is committed to success. She is a great example of what it means to be a student-athlete at Northwestern. We are very proud of Stephanie for being a tremendous role model in our program and we are extremely excited to have her around for another year.”

Holthus led Northwestern with 487 kills, which ties for the fifth-highest single-season output in program history. Her 4.27 kills per set this past season ties her for third in program annals. Holthus led Northwestern with 18 double-double statistical performances and recorded at least 20 kills in a match on 10 occasions during the season.

Holthus collected the 1,000th kill of her career during the opening weekend of Big Ten Conference play (20th player in program history to break 1,000). She sits in 10th place all-time with 1,294 kills with a season to play.

She also ranked second on the team this season with 347 digs and notched her 1,000th career dig in the season finale against Nebraska. She goes into her senior year with 1,003 digs (one of 15 Northwestern players to go over 1,000 digs all-time).

Off at College wants your help: Send information and/or statistics on Fox Valley-area athletes playing collegiately to Mike Miazga at difibulator@aol.com.