Coconino News

Northern Arizona University head volleyball coach Ken Murphy has announced the addition of two true freshmen for the 2023-24 season. Avery Gottschalk and Gigi Greenlee will join the Lumberjacks in the Fall of 2023 and look to make immediate impacts.

Gottschalk is a 6-3 middle blocker from Rocklin, Calif., where she attends Rocklin High School. Greenlee, who is also a 6-3 middle blocker, hails from Scottsdale, Ariz., and attends Horizon High School.

Greenlee was coached by Valorie McKenzie at Horizon where she was a captain and three-year letterwinner and starter. During her career, she played in 282 sets, garnering 539 kills at a .336 clip to go with 270 total blocks. Greenlee led the Huskies to consecutive Arizona 5A state champion titles in 2021 and 2022.

On the national level, Greenlee finished in the top-five at the USAVB Junior Nationals Open Division in 2022 and won the division in 2021 when her squad went undefeated at the tournament and she was named to the All-Tournament team. She was named first team Best and Brightest by AVCA and earned a 2022 All-American Special Mention from prepvolleyball.com after being named to the AVCA All-American Watchlist and the 2023 High School All-American Watchlist as a senior. 

She was a two-time Max Preps Player of the Match and earned a spot on the Northeast Valley All-Region Second team.

Greenlee chose Northern Arizona because of the culture of the volleyball program and the supportive coaches. She also wanted to be in a different climate while still being close to home and family.

Gottschalk was coached by Dave Muscarella at Rocklin where she was a multi-sport athlete. She was a two-year letterwinner for volleyball where she started all four seasons and was named a team captain along with being a two-year starter on the basketball team.

For volleyball, she was named first-team All-SFL and was also a four-year scholar athlete. Her club team is Synergy Force and she was named an Optimist Game All-Star. Her senior season saw her appear in 97 sets, garnering 175 kills at a .247 clip to go with 61 total blocks and 33 assists.

Gottschalk chose Northern Arizona because she loves the outdoors and the beautiful setting. She enjoyed her interactions with the coaching staff and team and wanted to be a part of the family and atmosphere at NAU. 

Original source can be found here.