FOSTER’S FREEZE

The press release arrived unannounced in June.

Sara Foster, a middle blocker on the Valencia High girls’ volleyball team, had committed to Missouri-Kansas City.

That the college was relatively obscure was only part of the story.

The timing of Foster’s commitment, nearly four months before she was to begin her senior season, was equally perplexing.

That’s what happens when a student and a college fall for each other.

The 5-foot-11 Foster, the best player in the Foothill League, was being courted by mid-level Division I colleges that included Cincinnati and Xavier of Ohio.

But Missouri-Kansas City, hardly known for sets and spikes, caught the attention of Foster.

It was a small campus. Its volleyball program didn’t have a life-or-death approach. And it had snow in the winter. Plenty of it.

“It had to be a snowy place,” said Foster, a self-admitted nature lover who wanted to see a definitive change of seasons, along with potential playing time as a freshman.

“I wanted a volleyball program where it was good, but not where you would sit on the bench freshman and sophomore years,” Foster said.

Choosing a college wasn’t the only crucial decision Foster has made this year.

During track season, she decided to no longer compete in the high jump, an event in which she has excelled since winning the Southern Section Division I title as a freshman with a jump of 5-6.

She was equally successful as a sophomore, jumping a career-best 5-8 in the state championships.

But last season, Foster put a halt--perhaps only briefly--to her track career.

“It was a lot of pressure,” she said. “I didn’t enjoy it. I didn’t want to practice ever.

“I actually liked when I’d get out there and do high jump. It’s the whole track meet I didn’t like. I had to do the 400 [meters], and the 4 by 100 [relay] and long jump. It’s a lot of work. I just didn’t like it enough to put in all that work.”

Foster hasn’t ruled out returning to the high jump next spring, but for now she enjoys the faster pace of volleyball.

Foster, whose mother, Laurie, was a center on the San Diego State women’s basketball team from 1973-77, uses her strong vertical leap to pound the volleyball over opponents.

She has been the Vikings’ kill leader in each of their four nonleague matches, never committing more than two hitting errors in a match.

She is the most dominant player in the Foothill League in years, said Valencia Coach Ray Sanchez, who singled out Foster for another reason.

“She is the most humble kid you’ll ever meet,” Sanchez said. “To be that dominant, on a different level than 95% of the kids you’ll ever see, and to still be humble is really amazing.”

Humble, yet a leader.

“You can just tell, the way she sits with the other girls and the way they talk to her, there’s something special about that kid,” Sanchez said. “The other girls really gravitate toward her.”

Valencia finished fourth at the Royal tournament last weekend, its best finish ever, with Foster catching the eye of longtime Royal Coach Bob Ferguson.

“She finishes very well,” Ferguson said. “Her hitting skills really stood out.”

It’s a fact that figures to continue long after she arrives in Kansas City.