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B1
Sierra Linke,
volleyball
Kathy Aney/East Oregonian, File
Blue Mountain’s Kristin Williams (12) unleashes a spike during a 2016 game against North Idaho College at the McCrae Activ-
ity Center in Pendleton. Williams was among six Blue Mountain Community College volleyball players to earn a spot on the
Northwest Athletic Conference 2010s All-Decade Team.
BMCC volleyball,
basketball players
honored by NWAC
By ANNIE FOWLER
East Oregonian
PENDLETON — The
Blue Mountain Community
College volleyball program
was one of the most dominant
Northwest Athletic Confer-
ence teams of the past decade,
and the players’ eff orts did not
go unnoticed, with six earning
a spot on the NWAC 2010s
All-Decade Team.
Pe nd let on’s K r ist i n
Williams leads the way with
fi rst-team honors, along with
Sierra Linke and Robyn
Shirmer. Hermiston’s Crystal
Schmidt was a second-team
pick, as were Rebecca Haight
and Samantha Odren.
The Timberwolves also
had women’s basketball player
Mar’Shay Moore, a two-time
NWAC Player of the Year,
named to the fi rst team.
Pendleton’s Darian Lind-
sey earned second-team
honors for softball while play-
ing for Mt. Hood.
Blue Mountain won
NWAC volleyball titles in
2010, and from 2012-15.
During their four-year run,
the Timberwolves were a
combined 177-22 (.889 win
percentage).
Williams, a 6-foot-3 middle
on the 2015 team that went
42-9, was named the 2015
NWAC Player of the Year as
a freshman. Her sophomore
year, in which the Timber-
wolves were a modest 25-17,
she led the team with 77
blocks and was a fi rst-team
all-East Region pick.
“I didn’t know this was a
thing,” she said of the All-De-
cade Team. “I had a few people
tag me on Facebook.”
Williams, who grew up in
Helix, transferred to Pendle-
ton High School when she was
a freshman for better exposure
to sports.
“I started playing in middle
school,” Williams said. “We
never went to state when I was
in high school. We won the
league title a couple of times,
but we lost in the state play-in
game.”
In her fi rst year at BMCC,
she earned Player of the Year
honors as well as being named
to the NWAC tournament fi rst
team. She also was a fi rst-team
All-American. She fi nished
the season with 185 kills with
a 0.327 attack percentage, and
87 blocks.
“Kristin never played
the middle blocker position
before this season,” BMCC
coach Dave Baty told the
East Oregonian at the time.
“She embraced its challenges
and continues to learn and
improve.”
After she finished at
BMCC, Williams went to
the University of Idaho, but
a back injury limited her to a
partial season.
“I hurt my back and had to
medically retire,” Williams
said. “That’s one of the hard-
est decisions as an athlete you
have to make.”
Williams remained at Idaho
and settled in as a student.
“I found my major and it
worked out,” she said. “I grad-
uated with my bachelor’s in
architecture in the summer of
2020. I have one more year of
my master’s left, then it’s on
to the real world.”
Williams has designed a lot
of residential buildings, but she
has her eye on something else
for her thesis.
“I think I will go into long-
term care facilities,” she said.
“I started in interior design and
I think that helped me see how
people live.”
Robyn Shirmer,
volleyball
A setter from Mt. Si High
School in Seattle, Shirmer
was named the 2012 NWAC
Player of the Year. She went on
to play at Lewis-Clark State
College in Lewiston, Idaho.
Her junior year, she handed out
833 assists for the Warriors.
B1
The 5-10 Pasco native was
named the NWAC Player of
the Year in 2014 as a soph-
omore, and was named the
NWAC Tournament MVP as
the Timberwolves won their
third consecutive title and
posted a 50-4 record. She led
BMCC with 273 kills.
Linke went on to play
at Eastern Oregon Univer-
sity, where she was an
outside hitter. She helped the
Mountaineers win Cascade
Collegiate Conference regu-
lar-season titles in 2015 and
2016, and earn trips to the
NAIA national tournament.
Linke (now Christensen)
fi nished her degree at Oregon
Health & Science University
and works as a registered
nurse.
Crystal Schmidt,
volleyball
A 6-foot middle blocker
from Hermiston, Schmidt
was a two-time Columbia
River Conference Player of
the Year for the Bulldogs, and
a 5A fi rst-team all-state selec-
tion her senior year.
She had 367 kills for the
Timberwolves her sopho-
more year and was named
the 2013 NWAC Player of
the Year.
Schmidt went on to play at
Carroll College in Montana.
She earned All-Frontier
Conference honors twice and
helped Carroll earn a share
of the Frontier Conference
crown in 2015.
A talented javelin thrower,
Schmidt also participated in
track at Carroll College.
At the 2016 NAIA Cham-
pionships, she was fourth
in the javelin with a toss of
151-6.
In 2017, she competed in
the heptathlon. At the NAIA
championships in 2017, she
was 11th in the heptathlon
(4450 points), 12th in the
javelin (130-2) and 13th in
the high jump (5-3).
Rebecca Haight,
volleyball
A 2009 grad of Mark
Mo r r i s H ig h S c h o ol
(Longview, Washington),
Haight was the Greater St.
Helens 2A League MVP in
2007-08.
Haight set the Mark Morris
record for kills in a season
with 326 as a junior. That
record still stands.
A 5-9 outside hitter, she
played two years at BMCC,
then went on to play at EOU.
She was named the Cascade
Collegiate Conference
Newcomer of the Year after
recording 213 kills.
Samantha Odren,
volleyball
Odren was a 5-5 setter
from Auburn Mountainview
High School in Auburn,
Washington. As a senior, she
was the SPSL Player of the
Year in 2012.
At Blue Mountain, she was
a second-team East Region
selection as a freshman and
a sophomore in 2013-14, and
helped the college to two
NWAC titles.
Mar’Shay Moore,
basketball
Moore had wanted to play
Division I basketball since she
was 5 years old. She made that
dream come true.
The NWAC Player of the
Year in 2014-15, Moore was
signed by the University
of Oregon, making her the
fi rst female Blue Mountain
student-athlete in any sport
to play at the Division I level.
In her sophomore year at
Blue Mountain, the 5-foot-8
guard from Vancouver, Wash-
ington, averaged 24.1 points
a game for the 19-10 Timber-
wolves.
Her 700 points for the 2014-
15 season is tied for the second
most in NWAC history behind
former Umpqua Community
College’s Kristi Fallin, who
also went on to play at Oregon.
As a freshman at BMCC,
Moore averaged 18.4 points
a game while shooting 45
percent from the fi eld, and had
4.7 rebounds and 2.1 steals per
game.
At Oregon, Moore came
off the bench for coach Kelly
Graves, and was a tenacious
defensive player.
Beavers have depth at QB, but who will start season?
BY STEVE GRESS
Corvallis Gazette-Times
CORVALLIS — Oregon State
head football coach Jonathan Smith
believes competition helps bring out
the best in players.
He anticipates that will be the case
in the quarterback room, where the
Beavers have several candidates to
take over the starting job for this
coming season.
Training camp gets started at the
end of next week, and the Beavers
will be looking to see which quar-
terback emerges as the leader of the
off ense.
The Beavers return two quarter-
backs who saw extended action last
season.
Tristan Gebbia started the
first four games before suffer-
ing a season-ending leg injury. He
completed 80 of 129 passes for 824
yards with three touchdowns and
three interceptions and helped lead
the Beavers to an upset of Oregon
before he was hurt on the game-win-
ning drive.
Smith said Gebbia should be ready
to go when camp starts.
“I think he’s got a great skill set,”
Smith said at the Pac-12’s media
day on Tuesday. “Understands the
scheme, good leader. Has won games
for us.”
Chance Nolan took over for
Gebbia and completed 46 of 91
passes for 537 yards and six touch-
downs with two interceptions. He
also rushed 30 times for 147 yards and
one score, providing a dual threat at
the position for the Beavers.
“We were really close the last
couple (games) with him as the
starting quarterback,” Smith said.
“Counting on him making huge
strides in his game from Year 1 to
Year 2.”
Ben Gulbranson, who also saw a
limited action last season, will not be
ready for fall camp due to a shoulder
injury, Smith said.
Knowing that Gulbranson would
be out, the Beavers added former
Colorado starter Sam Noyer, a grad
transfer, to the fold back in June.
Noyer, from Beaverton, passed
for 1,000 yards in the Buff aloes’ fi ve
games last season, completing 80 of
137 passes with six touchdowns and
fi ve interceptions. He also rushed for
191 yards on 45 attempts.
“(Noyer) has a little bit diff er-
ent skill set, makes the game physi-
cal, moving his feet, bigtime arm,”
Smith said. “Anxious to work with
him coming in August.
“(We have) three really good
options there.”
Noyer isn’t the only Sam in the
quarterback room as freshman Sam
Vidlak from Hidden Valley High has
been on campus and participated in
spring practice.
“Had a great spring,” Smith said.
“He’s going to have an opportunity
this August to go. We have four
healthy guys.”
If Gulbranson hadn’t been injured,
the Beavers may not have been as
interested in Noyer, Smith said. But
in need of another healthy body at
the position, and Noyer’s familiar-
ity with some of the current play-
ers, as well as off ensive coordinator
Brian Lindgren, who was at Colorado
before joining Smith’s staff when he
took over, made it an easier decision.
“Everything I’ve heard so far since
he’s been here has been great,” Smith
said. “You talk about a guy who loves
the game, is unselfi sh. You can see
his leadership capabilities even the
short time he’s been with us.
“So I’m really excited to see him
out there on the practice fi eld with
us, using the skill set that he has, not
just throwing or running but also on
this leadership side.”
The familiarity with Lindgren and
the system should help Noyer adapt
quicker to what the Beavers want to
do on off ense.
“Schematically, some of the way
we call plays, probably brought back
what he remembers from his fi rst
couple years,” Smith said.
There isn’t a lot of time between
now and the season opener — Sept.
4 against Purdue in West Lafayette,
Indiana.
Regardless of who wins the start-
ing job, the Beavers need to be able
to rely on the other three to step in
when needed.
“We feel like we’ve got a quar-
terback room that is full of some
talent, it’s going to be competitive
this month in training camp,” Smith
Amanda Loman/The Associated Press, File
Oregon State quarterback Chance
Nolan (10) scrambles while looking
for a receiver against Arizona State
in Corvallis on Dec. 19, 2020.
said. “The cream rises to the top when
you have that type of competition in
August, but also it adds to our depth
as the season goes.”
SPORTS SHORT
Blazers acquire rights to Texas forward Greg Brown
By ERIK GARCÍA
GUNDERSEN
The Associated Press
PORTLAND — The Portland
Trail Blazers on Thursday, July 29,
acquired the rights to Greg Brown,
the No. 43 pick in the NBA draft, in a
trade with the New Orleans Pelicans.
Deputy Commissioner Mark
Tatum announced the Blazers sent
a future second-round pick and cash
to New Orleans, which selected the
forward from Texas.
Brown started 24 of 26 games
for the Longhorns last season. He
averaged 10 points and nearly seven
rebounds per game in Big 12 play.
The Blazers entered the night
without any draft picks. The rights to
their 2021 fi rst-round pick were sent
to the Houston Rockets in last fall’s
trade for starting forward Robert
Covington.
After their fourth first-round
playoff loss in fi ve seasons, general
manager Neil Olshey hired former
Clippers assistant Chauncey Billups
to succeed Terry Stotts as head coach.
Stotts is the only coach star guard
Damian Lillard has played for in
the NBA. Lillard led USA Basket-
ball with 21 points in Wednesday’s
120-63 victory over Iran at the Olym-
pics in Tokyo.
Lillard has publicly stated he
believes the Blazers must improve
while denying reports that he is
asking for a trade.
Charles Rex Arbogast/The Associated Press, File
Texas’ Greg Brown III participates in the NBA Draft Combine
at the Wintrust Arena on Tuesday, June 22, 2021, in Chicago.
