The UCSB women’s volleyball team has signed Michelle “Mimi” Cuttrell (Santa Barbara HS) and Kiersten Dolbec (Saratoga HS) to National Letters of Intent during the spring signing period, it was announced by head coach Kathy Gregory this week.
Mimi Cuttrell is currently a senior at Santa Barbara High School where she was captain of the varsity volleyball team in 2008, helping lead the Dons to a CIF Division IA Southern Section Championship in the fall.
On the club level, Cuttrell is currently the team captain of the Santa Barbara Volleyball Club 18 Blue team and led her squad to a first-place finish at the Sixth Annual MLK Invitational Speak Easy Tournament.
In 2008, she competed internationally in Pula, Croatia on the SCVA High Performance Global Challenge team. Her team won the gold medal in Croatia in the Istrija Division. The same year, she earned all-tournament honors at the Junior Olympics in Dallas, Tex. after leading her team to a silver medal in the 16 American Division.
Additionally, she was an all-tournament selection at the 2007 Junior Olympics after taking fifth-place at the 15 National Division. She earned a gold medal at the 2006 Junior Olympics in the 14 American Division.
“We are very excited to have another local player who is an outstanding athlete,” Gregory said. “She is very competitive and has a great arm swing and jump. She will immediately help us offensively. I look for her to have the same impact as Erica Menzel (2000-03) did on the program.”
Kiersten Dolbec comes to UCSB via Saratoga High School where she is a dual-sport athlete in volleyball and track and field.
This past season, Dolbec captained Saratoga’s varsity volleyball team, was named Most Valuable Player and was named first team all-league. She currently competes for Vision Volleyball 18 Blue and will compete at the 2009 Junior Olympics in the Open Division.
Dolbec has played three years of varsity volleyball at Saratoga and has competed for Vision Volleyball Club 17 Blue and Point Break Volleyball Club.
Also an accomplished high jumper, she is a three-time Santa Clara Valley Athletic League Champion in the event. She is also a three-time Most Valuable Field Athlete honoree. She has competed at the California State Track Meet, where she made the finals in 2007. She also won the high jump at the Central Coast Section meet the same season.
“Kiersten is a physically gifted athlete and will be a dual-sport athlete at UCSB in both volleyball and track. She is one of the top high jumpers in the state and is already jumping 5’10”,” Gregory said. “She will raise the level of our blocking and will compete to play in the middle as well as on the right side. She has tremendous upside and is very outgoing and competitive at everything she does.”
Dolbec and Cuttrell will join Leah Sully (Woodridge HS) and Nicole Favreau (Rosary HS) – who signed NLI’s during the fall signing period – in the fall 2009 freshman class
.
