For the record, I just love Sports Illustrated's "Faces in the Crowd" feature.
I've been reading it since I was a wee lad growing up in Geneva, when my best friend Ken Rivera pointed it out to me. (It was always Ken's Sports Illustrated I was reading.)
Anyway, we have a reason to love it even more here in Geneva.
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Geneva's very own is in the Oct. 24 issue of Sports Illustrated's "Faces in the Crowd." It's on newsstands now, and here's a link.
Lauren is of course the and is competing in her sophomore year on the Northern Illinois University volleyball team.
Find out what's happening in Genevawith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Here's the update, courtesy of NIU's excellent Sports Information Department:
"I just wanted to make you all aware, if you haven't seen already, that Northern Illinois volleyball sophomore outside hitter Lauren Wicinski is featured in Sports Illustrated's "Faces in the Crowd" for the Oct. 24 issue that just came out. The online link is here: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/scorecard/faces/2011/10/24/
"After being the first player in conference history to be named MAC Player and Freshman of the Year last season, Wicinski is on pace for an even better season as she leads the nation in points (6.59) and kills (5.62) per set, and ranks third in aces per set (0.68).
"She achieved her 1,000th career kill two weeks ago in her 54th career match to become the fastest in MAC and NIU history to reach the milestone kill. She has been named MAC West Division Offensive Player of the Week four times this season, including three in a row from Sept. 26-Oct. 10. Both of her parents were athletes at NIU and she has furthered the family legacy drastically in just a year and a half."
Also for the record (and just to show how old I am), one of the first talents I remember being highlighted in "Faces in the Crowd" were a couple of college golfers by the names of Ben Crenshaw and Tom Kite.
Those Sports Illustrated folks know what they're doing. :)
With apologies to non-sports fans, I'm going to send this out as a "breaking news" e-mail, just to shout it to the world. I know it's not emergency-type news, but it's so much fun to see someone from Geneva in SI that I wanted to share.
-RN
