MICHELLE WITZKE MURPHY
Volleyball, 1994-97
Inducted February 24, 2007

Michelle Witzke had a highly-successful four-year career for the Missouri State volleyball Bears from 1994 to 1997, playing her first two seasons for coach Linda Dollar and her final two campaigns for coach Melissa Stokes. Missouri State logged three winning seasons in that four-year span, finishing third, fourth and fifth in the Missouri Valley Conference in Witzke’s final three seasons.  A powerful outside hitter, Witzke was on the all-conference second team her sophomore and junior seasons before winning first team all-Valley honors during her senior year. She easily led the Valley in kills (667) and kills per game (5.70) as a senior and was fifth in the league in digs. She led the Bears in kills in 20 of the season’s matches and had double figures in kills in 29 of 32 matches for the Bears. Witzke was also on the all-tournament team at the conference tourney each of her last two seasons and was on the MVC all-freshman team her first year. She was selected to the MVC scholar-athlete team each of her last three years and received the Missouri State Volleyball Player of the Year award each of her final three campaigns. Leading the Bears in kills three years in a row, she was also a CoSIDA Academic All-District pick and  a CoSIDA Academic All-America Second Team selection as a senior. Witzke still has three of the top six single match kills totals on records at Missouri State. She owns the single season kills record (667) from 1997, and has a four-year total of kills (1,919) that is more than 300 beyond the second best career total on record for the Bears and was the MVC career record at the time she graduated. Her 4,944 kill attempts are more than 1,200 beyond the second place Missouri State total in that department and also stand as the Valley record. Witzke’s 1,343 career digs also rank as second on the all-time Missouri State list.