MSU-N volleyball inks Idaho star

With the fall sports season now in the past, it's recruiting season. And the Montana State Uni9versity-Northern volleyball team has announced the first signee for its 2010-11 recruiting class.

On Tuesday, MSU-N head coach Bill Huebsch announced the signing of outside hitter Lynnsie Togiai of Pocatello, Idaho. Togiai is currently a senior at Century High School in Pocatello. She helped lead Century to a 2010 state championship in volleyball and was one of the team's top hitters.

And hitting is what led Togiai to Havre and to MSU-Northern. She was recruited by NCAA Division I teams like Weber State and Utah Valley State, as well as MSU-N's Frontier Conference rivals Carroll College and the University of Great Falls.

But many of the schools that sough Togiai wanted her to play libero or as a defensive specialist because of her 5-8 frame. So instead, she chose Northern where she will be an outside hitter.

"I got offers from others places," Togiai told the Idaho State Journal recently, "But it came down to playing outside hitter. I just love killing the ball. Everyone gets pumped up when you get a kill."

And Togiai did plenty of killing the ball during her senior season at Century. She totaled a whopping 307 kills, as well as 101 aces and 320 digs, meaning she's a very versatile player. And one who should fit into a Skylights team which loses several key offensive players this year.

Togiai is also a 4.0 student at Century and will major in civil engineering at Northern. She says after her recruiting visit to Havre, she liked the school's student-teacher ratio and that Northern and Havre was a good fit.