Area sports: Park’s Wendy Romero is NAIA women’s volleyball player of the year
Park’s Wendy Romero is the NAIA women’s volleyball player of the year, the organization announced Tuesday. Romero, a senior from Venezuela, led the Pirates to the national semifinals for the second time in three seasons and leaves the school as the single-season record holder in kills, kills per set and attempts.
“You know you have a special player when everyone knows you’re giving her the ball, they know where she’s going to go with it, and they still have an extremely difficult time stopping her,” Park coach Mike Talamantes said in a release.
“That’s what Wendy was for us, this year. She was a quiet leader, except when it was time to hit the volleyball. She is a special player. But more than that, she’s family, and she’s a leader. You don’t replace that.”
In 2014, Romero was most valuable player of the NAIA tournament as the Pirates went 40-0 and won the national championship.
▪ In a series of roster moves Tuesday, the Missouri Mavericks lost forwards Rocco Carzo and Kyle Schempp to Bridgeport of the American Hockey League and gained defenseman Tommy Vannelli from Chicago of the AHL.
Carzo, an alternate captain for the Mavericks, was called up by the New York Islanders to the AHL for the third time. He’s scored seven goals for the Mavericks, tying for the team lead. Schempp, a rookie, has three goals and two assists with the Mavericks since joining the team Oct. 31. He’s appeared in five AHL games with the Sound Tigers.
Vannelli, 21, a 6-foot-2, 185-pound defender, was reassigned to the Mavericks by the St. Louis Blues, who drafted him 47th overall in 2013. He started his pro career last season with the Wolves and had one assist, eight penalty minutes and a plus-4 rating in seven games before a concussion took him out of action for the rest of the year.
▪ Bob Bates of Prairie Village and Wilbur Jones of Shawnee were inducted Saturday into the United States Tennis Association Missouri Valley Hall of Fame. Bates volunteered for USTA Heart of America for more than 40 years and served 20 years as an official, including six appearances at the U.S. Open. Jones’ teams won three USTA League Senior National Championships.
▪ Former Blue Valley Northwest guard Clayton Custer of Loyola of Chicago was chosen Missouri Valley Conference scholar-athlete of the week for the second consecutive time. Custer, a sophomore, scored 20 points in a win over San Diego State and has a 3.57 grade-point average in finance.
This story was originally published December 6, 2016 at 11:50 PM with the headline "Area sports: Park’s Wendy Romero is NAIA women’s volleyball player of the year."