Made official just after 12 p.m. on Wednesday, May 18, Lake Orion’s Amanda “Mandy” Knieper signed her National Letter of Intent (LOI) to continue her academic and volleyball careers at Frostburg State University.
A National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division II school in Maryland, Frostburg, whose athletic teams are nicknamed the Bobcats, competes in the Mountain East Conference (MEC).
Enrolling at Lake Orion prior to her junior year in 2020-21 after her family moved from Indiana, Knieper immediately carved out a role for herself with the Dragons and pointed to the district championship last fall as her favorite memory during her time with the program.
“I definitely was a little late to the recruiting game,” Knieper said of how this signing came to be.
“It was a lot of just getting game film, then sending out e-mails to schools that interested me. I did all my initial research, and Frostburg had all the programs I was interested in.
“I went on my visit and just from talking with some of the coaches, they were all nice and it seemed like it would work out really well.”
Intending to pursue a degree in either Social Science or Business Administration, Knieper plans to leave for Maryland in early August.
A testament to the talent in the program and the player development abilities of head coach Tony Scavarda and his staff, Knieper becomes the fifth player from the 2021 team to sign their LOI to continue their career collegiately, joining Kayla Chan (Adrian), Hannah Lynch (Keiser – West Palm Beach, Florida), Jaina Macaulay (Minot State – Minot, North Dakota), and Lauren Peters (Lawrence Tech).
Nina Horning of the Class of 2023 is verbally committed to the soon-to-be Big 12 Conference’s Cincinnati Bearcats, as well.
“It was evident from the start that she had great work ethic, she worked hard every practice,” Scavarda said of his two seasons coaching Knieper.
“She came in already with really good fundamental skills, she came from a really good, highly respected club down in Indy. As far as what she brought to the team ability-wise, she’s very versatile, she can play a number of different positions and she did play a number of different spots during her two years playing for us and contributed in a lot of different ways.”
Even with a player as developed as Knieper when she arrived on-campus, there is always room for improvement and Scavarda identified where he has seen the most growth in her game over her two seasons as a Dragon.
“I would say probably her back row play,” he began. “She had good ball skills, but I think, over the two years, she got more consistent as she got more opportunities to play some back row and handle some back row responsibilities, such as passing, defending, things like that.
“As far as front row, attacking, she was pretty solid at that, too, and we used her mainly her senior year as a right-side attacker.”
The Bobcats, coached by Kylie Heyne, went 9-20 (6-10 MEC) in 2021 and are set to graduate three seniors from their 19-player roster. Given the versatility Scavarda referenced, these departures could open the door for some early playing time for Knieper in 2022.
Congrats, Mandy, keep making Lake Orion proud!
Original source can be found here.
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