Bluder, Fennelly add to ‘families’

Lisa Bluder likes the new additions to her 'Hawkeye family.”

The Iowa women's basketball coach signed four players to national letters of intent on Wednesday, including Linn-Mar senior Amanda Ollinger.

'We have signed four tremendous athletes that also succeed academically and are all-around great young women,” Bluder said in a release.

The other signees are Bre Cera of Mukwonaga, Wis., Makenzie Meyer of Mason City and Alexis Sevillian of Goodrich, Mich.

Ollinger, a 6-foot-1 forward, is a two-time second-team all-state pick who averaged 12.3 points and 4.8 rebounds for the Lions last year. She averaged 18.6 points and 7.2 rebounds as a sophomore at Cedar Rapids Jefferson.

'She is an all-around athlete that can play either forward position for us,” Bluder said. 'Amanda is an excellent rebounder, but can also nail the open 3. She runs the floor so well for a player her size and will beat people guarding her down the court or off the bounce.”

Olinger said in the release she picked Iowa 'because it was the best fit for me. ... There is a natural affinity to the Hawkeyes. There's no other place I could envision myself calling home.”

Cera is a 5-10 guard and a two-time first-team all-state pick who became her school's all-time leading scorer as a junior.

'Bre is a terrific defensive player, a hard worker and unbelievable competitor,” Bluder said.

Meyer, also a 5-10 guard, has scored more than 1,000 points in her career. Bluder sees her as a possible point guard.

'She controls the tempo, but also has a scorer's mentality,” Bluder said.

Sevillian is a 5-6 guard who led her team to a 23-3 record and the state semifinals last season. She was a teammate for current Hawkeye Tania Davis.

'Alexis and Tania put on an amazing show in high school and they will continue to do that here at Iowa,” Bluder said.

ISU SIGNS 2

Iowa State women's basketball coach Bill Fennelly went a little different route during this signing period, landing two players from Europe.

Adriana Camber is a 5-9 forward from Lund, Sweden, and Aliyah Konate is a 6-4 forward/center from Berlin.

'I think every year recruiting is very different,” Fennelly said. 'At Iowa State I think, for a lot of reasons, we need to be willing to be creative and do some things differently. We had to this year. It's not something we do very often, but we had some contacts through a variety of reasons and I think Adriana and Aliyah are kids that fit what we needed.”

Camber was a member of the Nordic Championship team in 2013 and '14. She was a three-time all-star in the Swedish Championships. Konate was a member of Germany's 3-on-3 national team in the Youth Olympic Games in 2014.

'It's very hard,” Fennelly said of recruiting overseas. 'We didn't see either one of them live. That's a little bit of a gamble, but you really count on people you trust. And the people that had seen both of these (players), we trust completely and their skill sets and what they can bring. For me, I was sold when I met them. They're just amazing kids and their mothers are great people and they really fit what this university is about. Sometimes you have to air more on that and their upside.”