The Minnesota volleyball team has signed Rachelle Hagerty to a national letter of intent for the early signing period, and has added Christine Tan to the program according to an announcement made by Minnesota head coach Mike Hebert on Wednesday, Nov. 16. Hagerty and Tan, who is a recruited walk-on, will be eligible to compete for the University of Minnesota in 2006.

Hagerty is a 6-2 outside hitter from Defiance High School in Defiance, Ohio. In 2005, Hagerty was named the District 8 & Western Buckeye League Player of the Year. She is a two-time First-Team All-State selection, and was also Second-Team All-State as a sophomore. Hagerty was also ranked No. 19 on the prepvolleyball.com list of senior high school players and is also a nominee for the Ohio State Volleyball Player of the Year honors this year. In 2004, she became the first player in Ohio high school volleyball history to record 1,000 career kills by her junior season.

This season, Hagerty broke the state record for kills in a season with 593, and also set the new record for kills in a career at 1,637. She led her team to the Western Buckeye League title, by recording 38 kills and 32 digs against the state’s No. 4 ranked team Ottawa Glandorf. Hagerty also had 30 kills to help lead her team to the Division II Sectional Championship over Bowling Green.

In 2005, Hagerty was also named to the All-Tournament team for the USA 18’s Club Division Junior Olympic Championships. She currently plays club volleyball for the Toledo VBC program

“Rachelle is a very physical net player who hits the ball as hard as any recruit we will ever have at Minnesota,” said Minnesota Head Coach Mike Hebert. “She is very agile, and is a good jumper. Rachelle also plays with a lot of intuitive volleyball sense.”

Tan is a 5-4 libero from Palm Harbor High School in Palm Harbor, Fla. She was listed among the “Senior Aces”, which lists the top high school volleyball seniors, on prepvolleyball.com. Tan was listed among the top 23 high school senior backrow players on the “Senior Aces” list.

She was also named the team MVP for Palm Harbor High School the past two seasons, and was the MVP of the Lake Brantley Tournament. Tan also received First-Team All-County honors in her junior season.

Tan currently plays for the Tampa Bay Juniors club volleyball program. In 2004, she helped lead her club volleyball team to the 16’ National Club Championship title. For that accomplishment, she was one of three players on her club team named to the All- Tournament team.

“Christine has grown up in a volleyball family,” said Hebert. “As a result she is a very knowledgeable player who loves to play the sport. She is a tremendous defensive player who is a good server as well. Christine plays with a lot of emotion, which is what is required defensively. She will definitely add to our ability to play defense.”

“This year we have a small class, but we think we got exactly what we needed,” said Hebert. “We needed additional firepower from the outside and we had to add defense to replace Paula’s (Gentil) absence, after she graduates this year. I think we covered both of those needs with these two players.”