Orange Coast College

Women's Volleyball: Johnson heading to Alaska; Spadaro sets sails for Hawaii

Tuesday, June 05, 2007

COSTA MESA - If OCC women's volleyball head coach Chuck Cutenese plans any trips to visit any of his most recent departures, he's going to rack up some serious frequent-flyer miles.

The two latest to leave the OCC nest include sophomore outside hitter Joanna Johnson and freshman setter Chelsea Spadaro. Johnson will continue her athletic and academic careers at the University of Alaska-Anchorage, while Spadaro will head west to attend school at the University of Hawaii-Hilo.

"Beyond the winning and the experience here at Coast, our ultimate goal is to get these ladies to a four-year university and it's always nice to see our players get to that next level," Cutenese said. "I know Joanna is very excited to be heading to Alaska. While I'm kind of sad to see Chelsea leave OCC a year early, I'm very happy that she's heading to a great university like Hilo."

Both Johnson and Spadaro were important pieces to OCC's state championship puzzle last season.

After helping Coast to a state title in 2005, Johnson (pictured left) notched 83 kills, added 43 assists, notched 56 digs posted 31 blocks, showing her all-around athletic ability on the way to a second-team, All-Orange Empire Conference selection.

Johnson was a co-captain with Kiwi Winkler in 2006 and in her two-year career, OCC went 51-2 during her tenure with the Pirates. Her seven blocks (six solo, two assisted) against San Joaquin Delta in the State Volleyball Playoffs was sixth-best for one match in school history.

With several returners from the 2005 season, Spadaro (pictured right) quickly learned the OCC system and became a setting machine for the Pirates, dishing out 973 assists, the most ever for one season in school history. That one-year total puts her seventh all-time on the career assist list and her 67 assists against Riverside was fifth-highest for one match in OCC history.

The departure of Johnson and Spadaro has further expanded the list of 2006-07 Pirate players who have reached the four-year university level, joining sophomore middle blocker Eva Johnson (Hawaii Pacific University) and sophomore libero Ashlee Moon (Florida State University).