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Pella senior Brooke Fessler has known for years where she would play college volleyball if given the opportunity, but she made it official yesterday afternoon, signing a national letter of intent to play for the University of Northern Iowa.

Fessler verbally committed to the Panthers the summer before her junior year and says she’s excited to finally make it official. She says playing for UNI is a dream come true. “Ever since I was a little girl I’ve dreamed of playing for UNI. I visited a couple different schools and was very impressed with the schools and teh coaches, but in my heart I always kept thinking back to UNI. Nothing was as good to me as UNI was or Coach Bobby Peterson was so I’ve always known in my heart that UNI was the right choice for me”. [simage=4427,200,y,right]

Fessler says she will red shirt her freshman year next year and looks forward to that experience helping her grow as a player. “I’m excited to be there for five years. I’ll still be able to practice and I’ll suit up and go on road trips with the team and basically do everything but play in the games for my first year. I’m really excited because I know I’ll learn alot during that year and hopefully I’ll get alot better and be ready to go my second year”.

Fessler has been the starting setter at Pella High since she was a freshman and helped lead the Lady Dutch to state tournament berths all four of her high school years and was a major part of their 76-12 record the past two seasons. She’s also a two-time all-state honoree, earning first-team honors in 2009 as well as Iowa Girls Coaches Association all-state honors all four years of her high school career. and was an all-district and all-conference honoree the past four seasons. Fessler was also tabbed as an IGCA Senior All-Star in 2010 and will play Saturday November 20th at Carroll Kuemper High School in Carroll. Fessler became the all-time assists leader at Pella with over 3,800 career assists and ranks second all-time in games and matches played. In addition to her high school experience, Fessler also played on the Iowa Rockets club team. Fessler’s high school coach was her dad, Bob Fessler and her club coaches were David Rogers and Bob Fessler. [simage=4428,200,y,right]