South Elgin grad Kumerow to play in top all-star game

South Elgin graduate Jake Kumerow has committed to play in the 2015 National Football League Players Association Collegiate Bowl on Saturday, Jan. 17 at the StubHub Center in Carson, Calif.

Kumerow, a senior at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater and the D3football.com national offensive player of the year, will compete in the annual all-star game, which features draft-eligible seniors, mostly from NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision level.

The game, which pits the American team against the National team, will air live at 3 p.m. on ESPN2 from the campus of California State University Dominguez Hills. Practices on Wednesday, Jan. 14 and Thursday, Jan. 15 will be broadcast live on ESPNU.

Participants in the game also will receive an in-depth introduction to the players' union in the week leading up to the game. Players will be instructed by professional players and coaching legends. Former NFL head coaches Mike Holmgren and Mike Martz will coach the teams.

Kumerow was named a first-team All-America, all-West Region and all-Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference selection this past season after helping lead Whitewater to its sixth NCAA Division III national title in 8 years. He finished his senior season with 66 catches for 1,116 yards and 14 touchdowns. He caught 8 passes for 130 yards and a touchdown in the team's 43-34 win over Mount Union in the Stagg Bowl XLII national championship game.

Kumerow wrapped up his career at the program's all-time leader in receiving touchdowns with 36. He also is second in career receiving yards with 2,648 and third in career receptions with 158.

Elgin graduate also Dennis Moore played a key role in the Stagg Bowl win for Whitewater. He caught 2 passes for 108 yards, including a 75-yard touchdown strike that erased a 31-30 deficit and put the Warhawks out in front 37-31. Moore also ran 18 times for 74 yards in the game. Moore, a junior running back, ran for 1,107 yards this season and had 5 rushing touchdowns.

Gulczynski at Wisconsin: Bartlett alum Jaci Gulczynski had her "3" game on recently.

Gulczynski, a 6-2 senior forward, connected on 6 of 10 three-point shots in helping the University of Wisconsin women's basketball team record a 65-46 win over visiting Penn State.

Gulczynski finished the game with a season-high 23 points and finished shooting 7-for-11 overall in 34 minutes of action. Wisconsin improved to 2-2 in Big Ten Conference play with the win.

Through the team's first 14 games, Gulczynski was averaging 9.4 points a game in an average of 31.3 minutes of play. She was shooting .466 from the field and has made 21 of 55 3-point attempts (. 382). She also was shooting .938 from the free-throw line (15-for-16), while averaging 4.6 rebounds per game. Gulczynski also had 24 assists against only 19 turnovers to go with 17 blocked shots.

In other recent action, Gulczynski had 9 points and 8 rebounds in a Big Ten loss to Minnesota. She also had a team-high 16 points, shot 6-for-6 from the free-throw line and had 6 rebounds in a loss in Evanston to Northwestern. Earlier in the year, Gulczynski had a team-high 18 points in a game in Coral Gables, Fla., against Miami.

Gulczynski, who is over the 800-point total for her career, is a two-time all-Big Ten academic selection.

Williams at Barry: Elgin graduate Arie Williams played a role in helping his Barry University team defeat No. 1-ranked Florida Southern recently.

Williams, a 5-9 sophomore guard, scored 9 points on 3-for-4 shooting from the 3-point line in Barry's 107-102 victory in Lakeland, Fla. The win pushed Barry to 9-1 overall and 2-0 in conference play.

Through the first 10 games, Williams was averaging 6.8 points and had 22 assists against only 9 turnovers. He was shooting .396 from the field and .413 from the 3-point line thanks to a 19-for-46 effort. He also was shooting .875 from the free-throw line.

Earlier in the season, Williams struck for a team-high 19 points in Barry's 96-75 victory over Puerto Rico-Rio Piedras. In that game, Williams shot 5-for-11 from the field, 4-9 from the 3-point line and 5-for-5 from the free-throw line. He also had 3 assists in his 17 minutes of action.

Williams averaged 4.9 points last year as a freshman in 28 games for Barry.

Palmer at Whitewater: Bartlett alum Lisa Palmer is a sophomore forward on the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater women's basketball team.

Palmer, who missed last season due to injury, has played in all 12 of the team's games thus far as a starter, averaging 27 minutes of action. She was averaging 6.7 points and a team-high 8.3 rebounds, while shooting .408 from the floor and .667 from the free-throw line. She also had 12 blocked shots.

In recent games, Palmer had 5 points and 3 rebounds in a 77-55 win over Wisconsin-River Falls. She had 4 points and 3 assists in a 71-45 win over Bethany Lutheran. She added 5 points and 9 rebounds in 30 minutes of play in 65-57 loss to Dubuque. She had 4 points and 4 rebounds in a 93-36 win over Illinois Tech.

Earlier in the season, Palmer pulled in 18 rebounds in a game against Illinois Wesleyan. She also had a team-high 14 points to go with 13 rebounds in a game against Wheaton College. Palmer added a 13-rebound performance against Wisconsin-Platteville and had 11 rebounds against George Fox.

In her first season at Whitewater, Palmer averaged 5.8 points and 6.8 rebounds to help the Warhawks finish second in the NCAA Division III.

Speweik update: Westminster Christian alum Claire Speweik was part of the Kentucky Christian women's volleyball team that won the NCCAA Division II national championship this past fall.

Speweik, a 5-11 freshman middle blocker, had 9 kills in Kentucky Christian's 25-21, 25-22, 25-22 win over Ozark (Mo.) Christian in the national-championship match.

She also had 2 aces in the team's 25-20, 25-18, 25-19 win over Ohio Christian in the Mideast Region championship match.

Kentucky Christian finished the season 29-11 and won its eighth Mideast region title.

Speweik is studying social work at the Grayson, Ky., school.

Doby at Grand Valley State: Harvest Christian Academy product Sydney Doby was part of the Grand Valley State women's volleyball team that reached the NCAA Division II semifinals this past fall.

The 6-2 freshman middle blocker from Algonquin finished the season with 94 kills and hit .215. She played in 80 sets (11 starts in 28 matches) and had 58 blocks to go with 28 digs. Doby averaged 1.67 points per set.

Doby finished with 1 kill, 1 dig and 1 block assist in the team's national semifinal loss to No. 4-ranked Southwest Minnesota State in Louisville.

Grand Valley State finished the year 27-6.

Ehrhardt moving to UIC: Jacobs alum Alyssa Ehrhardt has transferred from the Toledo women's volleyball team to the University of Illinois at Chicago, according to a posting on her Twitter account Dec. 8. Ehrhardt posted a team-high 287 kills and ranked second on the Toledo team with 284 digs. Toledo finished the 2014 season with a 1-28 record.

Off at College wants your help: Send information and/or statistics on Fox Valley-area athletes playing collegiately to Mike Miazga at mjm890@gmail.com.