Volleyball Adds Libero Lisa Mordell For 2015 Season
Dec 1, 2014 | Women's Volleyball
NEW ORLEANS - The Tulane University volleyball team added another incoming freshman for next season as Wheaton, Illinois, native Lisa Mordell will suit up for the Green Wave with her full allotment of eligibility starting in Fall 2015, head coach Sinisa Momic announced Monday.
A 5-6 libero who starred at national power St. Francis High School, Mordell is the fourth addition to the team for the 2015 campaign. She joins right-side hitter Aubrey Folk, middle blocker Dayna Kern and setter Liz Hurring - who signed National Letters of Intent with the Green Wave last week - and the foursome is expected to make an immediate impact on the program.
"Lisa is a skilled passer and defender, and will give us depth at the libero/defensive specialist position," Momic said. "She is a player with a solid knowledge of the game of volleyball and possesses excellent passing and digging skills. Lisa is also a great student and an overall great fit for our program."
In four years at St Francis, Mordell helped lead the Spartans to a combined 141-20 overall record and an unblemished 42-0 mark in Suburban Christian Conference action. Along the way, St. Francis posted four consecutive conference titles and claimed the Regional, Sectional, Super Sectional and Illinois Class 3A State championships in each of the last three seasons.
As a senior in 2014, Mordell played in 34 matches and 70 sets when she tallied 201 digs (2.87/set), 27 assists and 11 service aces. In the playoffs, she tallied 42 digs, five assists and five aces during the Spartan's seven-match run to the state title
Along the way, she had five-plus dig performances on 23 occasions and reached double figures five times, including a season-best 12 in both halves of a double-header against Marist and Mother McAuley on Sept. 27. In addition, Mordell tallied eighth multiple-assist outings with a season-best three vs St. Charles East on Sept. 6, and posted two service aces vs Hillcrest on Oct. 4, Regina Dominican on Oct. 28 and Richmond-Burton on Oct. 30. She was named Player of the Match after posting 11 digs and an assist in a 2-1 road win over Trinity in the regular-season finale on Oct. 23, 2014.
As a junior, she led the team with 180 kills and 43 service aces in 78 sets of action. Mordell also played for 1st Alliance Volleyball Club in 2014 and 2015, where she was named to the 2014 Junior Volleyball Association (JVA) Watch List, and for Sports Performance Volleyball from 2008-13, where she served as team captain on several occasions.
A standout in the classroom as well as on the court, Mordell claimed AP Scholar recognition and is member of the National Honors Society. She is on pace to graduate in May in the top five percent of the St. Francis High Senior Class.
Mordell and the other three incoming freshman will join a Green Wave team which is slated return 10 of 13 letterwinners from 2014. All told, Tulane is set to return 83.9 percent of the team's kills (1,069 of 1,273), 83.5 percent of the assists (1,162 of 1,392), 80.3 percent of the digs (1,331 of 1,658), 76.9 percent of the blocks (191.0 of 248.5) and 69.5 percent of the service aces (73 of 105) from the recently-concluded campaign.
