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News-Sun photo by DAN HOEHNE Lake Placid's Alana Nielander will be headed to Melbourne next season to play volleyball with the Lady Titans of Brevard Community College.

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published: Sunday, January 29, 2012

Nielander trades Dragons for Titans

By DAN HOEHNE

daniel.hoehne@newssun.com

LAKE PLACID -- It was time to make a move for Lady Dragon volleyball standout Alana Nielander.

In her search to continue her education -- and playing career -- at the collegiate level, she had a few options.

"I looked at a few schools, went to tryouts at Warner, Indian River and Brevard," Nielander said. "Of course I considered South Florida, where coach (Kim) Crawford has been such a tremendous help to me over the years, but I just felt I wanted to get away."

A school in Nebraska had also shown interest, but Nielander didn't want to get quite that far away, and the senior outside hitter signed to play at the Melbourne based Brevard Community College on Friday.

"It was really just the feeling I got from the players," she said. "When I went there, they were so friendly and welcoming.

"I had also been at a beach volleyball camp in Fort Lauderdale and got to be friends with their libero, Kara Young, so that helped too.

"But I had seen them play at a tournament at SFCC," Nielander continued. "I really liked the way they play and their coach (Herb) Tokumoto, has a unique style of coaching that I like."

Looking to major in nursing, the school fit her needs academically as well, though that eventually could cause a shift in her game.

"I can get my AA and a lot of my required courses there, and then hopefully find a school to play beach volleyball at," Nielander said. "The time constraints of the program would make it hard with games during the week. But beach volleyball only plays on weekends."

Whether on the hardwood indoors or landing with sand between her toes, Nielander is moving toward her future.