Burlington Central alum O'Reilly garners honors

Burlington Central alum Allie O'Reilly recently earned a share of the Adidas Ohio Valley Conference defensive player of the week honor. It was her first career weekly award.

O'Reilly, a senior at Austin Peay State University, stepped into the libero role and picked up all-tournament honors at the recent Jacksonville Invitational. She registered 55 digs (5.0 per set) in the three matches, including a 25-dig (6.25 per set) effort against South Florida.

O'Reilly also was charged with only 2 reception errors, while receiving serve 76 times. Austin Peay started the season with an 8-1 record and hosts SIU-Edwardsville Friday and Eastern Illinois on Saturday.

Witte honored by NSIC: Batavia resident and Rosary graduate Maria Witte recently was named the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference defensive player of the week in women's soccer. Witte is a junior defender/midfielder at St. Cloud (Minn.) State University.

She is the first St. Cloud State player to earn that award since 2011. The conference noted Witte was an integral part of the SCSU defense that recorded shutouts against Northern Michigan and Michigan Tech and helped limit those teams to a combined 9 shots and 3 shots on target. It was the first time SCSU has held opponents scoreless in two straight games to start a season since 2013.

Witte also recorded an assist from a free kick on the Huskies' third goal against Northern Michigan.

Dunner at Ball State: Dundee-Crown product Malik Dunner is a running back on the Ball State University football team that has a 2-1 record. Dunner has scored a rushing touchdown in each of the team's first 3 games. He ran the ball 5 times for 79 yards in the squad's recent win over Tennessee Tech. That total included a 66-yard touchdown run.

He also had scores against Lovie Smith's Illinois squad in the opening game and also had a rushing touchdown against UAB.

On the season, Dunner has run the ball 17 times for 110 yards and 3 touchdowns. He also has caught 5 passes for 43 yards (16-yard long reception) and has returned 3 kickoffs for 140 yards, including a 93-yard touchdown return.

Nutof in the pros: While not a college note per se, former South Elgin baseball standout Ryan Nutof finished his first season of professional baseball recently. Nutof, who played collegiately at Michigan, was taken in the 16th round this year by the Cincinnati Reds and was assigned to the club's short-season rookie league team in Billings, Mont.

Nutof went 0-2 with a 4.08 ERA on the mound. He appeared in 21 games and pitched 28⅔ innings, allowing 35 hits, while striking out 30. In a game earlier this month against Helena, he pitched 1⅓ innings and struck out four. He also fanned three in 2 innings of work against Ogden earlier in the season. Nutof also recorded 1 save this season.

Loberg at Wisconsin: Geneva graduate Grace Loberg, the 2016-17 Daily Herald Female Athlete of the Year, is a freshman on the University of Wisconsin women's volleyball team. Through midweek Loberg has played in seven matches, starting two and playing in a total of 17 sets. She had 8 kills, 2 aces and 2 digs in a match against Syracuse earlier this month and also had a career-high 9 kills at Kansas State. The Badgers were 9-0 heading into the start of Big Ten Conference play Friday against Michigan State.

Bartczyszyn at Louisiana: Cary-Grove product Jess Bartczyszyn has played in all 48 sets for the Louisiana Rajun' Cajuns women's volleyball team. She has 451 setting assists (9.40 per set) to go with 84 digs and 30 kills (hitting .354). Bartczyszyn recently returned to the Chicago area where Louisiana played at Chicago State against Chicago State, Wright State and Eastern Michigan in the Chicago State Invitational. Louisiana went 2-1 there. Against Chicago State she had 50 assists and 6 digs. Bartczyszyn had 22 assists, 5 kills and 4 digs in a loss to Wright State and then had 40 assists and 7 kills (on 10 swings with no errors) to go with 10 digs in a win against Eastern Michigan. Louisiana was 6-7 to start the week.

Locals at Waubonsee: The Waubonsee College women's volleyball team is filled with area names. Waubonsee recently fell to Sandburg and defeated Kishwaukee on the third day of the Chiefs' Invitational.

Local players of note on the Waubonsee squad include Anna Senese (Kaneland), Natalie Jones (West Aurora), Brittney Grider (Kaneland), Sidney Fedor (West Aurora), Kristen Fick (West Aurora) and Bailey Zies (West Aurora).

In the Sandburg match, Senese led Waubonsee with 11 kills and 16 digs. Jones had 21 assists and 4 aces, while Grider chipped in with 15 assists and 9 digs. Fedor had 8 kills.

Against Kish, Jones had 16 assists, while Grider and Fick each had 7 digs. Zies had 4 aces. Waubonsee moved to 14-5 with the victory.

Waubonsee women's soccer: Waubonsee's women's soccer team was a 7-1 conference winner against Oakton. Nicole Koczka (Kaneland) had 3 goals and 2 assists, while Taylor Zitkus had 2 goals and 1 assist. Geneva product Kelly Huber had 1 assist.

Aurora University to open new stadium: Aurora University's new multimillion-dollar stadium at Edgelawn Dr., and Jericho Rd., in Montgomery is scheduled to open Wednesday, Sept. 27, at 7 p.m. when the Aurora women's soccer team hosts Wisconsin Lutheran College at Spartan Athletic Park. Admission is free and the public is invited.

Aurora's men's team will play its first game at the facility, three blocks from campus, on Saturday, Sept. 30 when it hosts Concordia University-Wisconsin at 4 p.m. The women follow at 6:30 p.m. against CUW.

Off at College wants your help: Send information and/or statistics on Fox Valley-area athletes playing collegiately to Mike Miazga at mjm890@gmail.com. Fall sports submissions are encouraged.