Athlete of the Week: Hanna Jellema, Brandon Valley

Meet Hanna Jellema, she's a junior right-side hitter for the Brandon Valley Lynx and an athlete of the week here at ESPN 99.1. This last season Jellema helped the Lynx's to a 16-4 season with a good push into the state tournament. The Lynx's finished second place behind Aberdeen Central in the championship game.

Jellema finished the season with 294 kills, 23 blocks, 81 digs and 23 aces. She also was one of two juniors that was named to the All-State Team and was also named to the All-Tournament Team.

As a seventh grader, Jellema went out for volleyball and was influenced by coaches to continue with offseason work. "The coaches started talking to me and started doing a lot of work with me in the summer," Jellema said. "And I just got better and better."

She believes that her motivation comes from the love of the game and her desire to be a good player. Jellema also is driven like many other high school athletes to be at the top and that means a state championship.

As for the finishing second place in the state tournament, she has a positive outlook on coming up just a little short. "We've never been that far into a state tournament before, Aberdeen had a really good team" Jellema said. "I think we'll get better and learn and hopefully next year we'll get the championship."

Jellema will enter her senior year of high school eyeing a state championship but has also been looked at by quite a few colleges for 2017. SDSU, Winona State, Northern State, St. Cloud State and Mankato to name a few.

Congratulations to Hanna Jellema for being an athlete of the week here at ESPN 99.1!