Kankakee Times

The Olivet Nazarene University volleyball and softball programs grew by one player each, as each team signed one recruit recently, according to onutigers.com.

Sylvia Daun from Kaukauna High School in Sherwood, Wisconsin, signed to join the ONU volleyball team in fall 2017. Daun, a 5-foot-11  right side/outside hitter, is in her senior year, has earned four varsity letters and was a Fox Valley Conference Honorable Mention selection this year. She was captain of the Galloping Ghosts this season and was picked as the team's Best Offensive Player after posting an attack percentage of .420.

On the academics side, Daun has a grade-point average of 3.756, is ranked in the top 20 percent of her class of 278 students and is a National Honor Society member.

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"I chose Olivet because I attended a small parochial grade school, and ever since then, I knew I wanted God to be a part of every step of my college years," Daun said on onutigers.com.  "Olivet feels like a place where I can live with Christ by my side. The amazing teachers, coaches and players really made me feel at home. When I walk on campus, it feels like the right place to be."

Daun plans to major in exercise science.

The Tigers recently completed their season with a 23-14 overall record, winning a share of the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference regular-season title.

On the ONU softball team, Karlie Westmoreland of Davenport (Iowa) Central High School (DCHS) signed to join the program next fall. After starting at catcher as an eighth-grader and freshman for DCHS, Westmoreland moved on to play full-time for the Midwest Sluggers travel team. She plans to play for her high school team this coming season.

With the Sluggers last year, Westmoreland led the team with a .507 batting average and 20 home runs in leading the team to the 16U Class A Illinois State Championship.

Westmoreland also has exceled in other sports at DCHS, as she made the Academic All-Mississippi Athletic Conference Team in volleyball, soccer and basketball. She also is a National Honor Society member.

Westmoreland plans “to pursue a degree in art therapy and play for the best softball program in the NAIA,” she told onutigers.com.

“ONU has all the values that I was looking for in a four-year university that will help me develop into a leader for today's society,” she said.

Last season, the Tigers went 36-17-1, won the CCAC Tournament and played in the NAIA National Tournament.