Aug. 6, 2002

LOGAN, Utah - Former Utah State volleyball standout Heather Olmstead (Carpinteria, Calif.) has become eligible for the 2003 United States Professional Volleyball Draft (USPV) after attending the USPV National Athlete Tryout Camp in Chicago, Ill. last month.

A total of 109 world-class volleyball stars competed at the USPV tryout camp representing 63 different NCAA Division I volleyball programs and seven different countries. Of those 109 athletes, 14 made the final cut and became eligible for the upcoming USPV draft which will take place in September.

Of the 109 athletes that attended the two-day camp, Olmstead was the only libero selected for the draft.

The United States Professional Volleyball league is entering its second season which runs from January through May with 37 matches being played. In its inaugural year, there were four teams in the league, but the league is expanding to 10 teams for the upcoming season.

Olmstead, who was a four-year letterwinner at USU and led the Aggies to back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances, earned honorable mention all-Big West honors as a senior after setting a new single-season digs record with 340. She ended her Aggie career second all-time in digs (981), sixth in games played (412), and eighth in matches played (116).

Olmstead also had a stellar career in the classroom as she was Utah State's Big West Scholar Athlete of the Year her senior season with a 4.0 cumulative grade point average along with being a three-time academic all-Big West selection.