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Lindsey (Spoden) Vanden Berg Player Page Lindsey Vanden Berg is back for her second season as the top assistant for the Panther volleyball program after spending the previous two seasons as the program's director of operations. Vanden Berg, formerly Lindsey Spoden, was a standout player for the Panthers from 2000-2003, becoming the first-ever UWM player to earn Division I All-America honors. A four-time All-Horizon League honoree, Vanden Berg was the American Volleyball Coaches' Association Midwest Region Freshman of the Year in 2000 and an honorable mention AVCA All-American in 2003. She also earned all-region honors twice and was the co-player of the year in the Horizon League in 2003. Vanden Berg is second in school history in assists, fourth in digs and UWM's career leader in aces. She helped the Panthers to three NCAA Tournament berths and a pair of league titles during her stellar four-year career. Vanden Berg remained active in volleyball upon leaving UWM, coaching for the Milwaukee Sting Volleyball Club before returning to the Panther program for the 2005 season. In her role as the director of volleyball operations at UWM, Vanden Berg handled many of the administrative functions of the program, including coordinating team travel and serving as an alumni liason while helping with fundraising. She was instrumental in the program's fundraising events, including the "Dig `N' Dazzle" Fashion Show and this past May's "Run For The Roses." In her latest role, Vanden Berg has taken on more on-court coaching responsibilities while also working extensively on the Panthers' recruiting efforts. She got a head start with those responsibilities in the spring of 2007, when she was promoted to an interim assistant coaching position during the transition from Kathy Litzau to Susie Johnson in the head coaching role. Vanden Berg's promotion also puts an alum of the program in a crucial role on the staff. "I think it is enormously important," Johnson said of Vanden Berg's UWM background. "She carries with her so much value and knowledge because she had a ton of success as a player, both individually and with the team. She went to the NCAA Tournament in each of her first three years and didn't that fourth year, so she gets that it takes a lot of work to accomplish and it doesn't just come to you. She also has the pride of wanting to continue the Panther tradition." A native of Alexandria, Minn., she married former Panther baseball player John Vanden Berg in the summer of 2007. |
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