Liza Pflugradt is in her first year as a graduate assistant with the Lakeland men’s and women’s volleyball teams.
Pflugradt joins the Muskies after a collegiate career that started at Jacksonville State University, an NCAA Division I school in Alabama where current Lakeland head coach Ryan Schopf was an assistant coach. She finished with 145 kills and 26 blocks as a freshman for the Gamecocks, finishing fourth on the team in kills and fifth in blocks, before transferring to Walsh University in North Canton, Ohio, for her final three years. Pflugradt was a two-year starter with the NCAA Division II Cavaliers and finished with 319 kills and 82 blocks, finishing among the team leaders in both categories as a sophomore and junior before missing her senior year due to injury.
In addition to her playing career, Pflugradt also was a coach at camps for Rolling Thunder Volleyball Club, her former club team with the club’s beach program. She also was a camp coach at her former high school and at Sturgeon Bay High School in Sturgeon Bay, Wis.
Pflugradt is a native of the Chicago area and a graduate of Adlai Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire, where she was team MVP as a senior and a two-time all-Chicago Sun Times area team selection. She was a dean’s list student collegiately and received her degree from Walsh in exercise science and a minor in psychology, and she is working on a master’s degree in business at Lakeland.
