Flathead High hitter latest Montana standout to ink with MSU-N volleyball

Last week, Montana State University-Northern head volleyball coach Jerry Wagner announced the signing of two standout Montana players for his 2019-2020 recruiting class. As it turns out, Wagner is nowhere near done recruiting the state of Montana either.

On Wednesday, Wagner announced the signing of Flathead High School outside hitter Julia Burden to an NAIA national letter of intent. Burden is a 6-0 senior from Kalispell who plans on studying nursing at Northern.

"Julia is a very strong athlete that brings a wealth of talent and ability to an already solid and vastly improved core of outside hitters," Wagner said.  "We need to continue to address the team's ability to run a much more efficient offense and Julia will help greatly in that effort. Julia was honored with Offensive Player of the Year the past two seasons at Flathead High School and serves the ball extremely well. Julia has been a captain and leader on her team and understands the commitment needed to have success as a team. I'm looking forward to her joining a team full of like-minded student athletes here at MSU-N." 

Burden was an All-State Class AA performer a season ago, and selected to play on the Montana All-Star Team. As a sophomore, she was also Second-Team All-Conference. Currently in her senior season, Burden is third in AA with 3.65 kills per set and fourth in AA with 4.58 points per set.

"Julia has been an integral part of the Flathead volleyball program since her freshman year. Having coached her for three years now it has been so fun to watch her skills in volleyball grow," said Flathead head coach Nicole Fairclough. "She is the kind of athlete any coach wants in their program. She works hard, she competes at a high level and she's confident. I'm proud of all she has accomplished during her time at Flathead and I am so excited to see how she flourishes at MSU-Northern over the next four years. I only wish Havre was a little closer to Kalispell so I could watch some of her games."

Burden is the third recruit to sign with Wagner in a week, and he is more than excited about how his first full-class is shaking out.

"Coach Fairclough and Coach Micheals both strongly recommended Julia not only for her incredible talent, but also her outstanding attitude and work ethic on and off the court," Wagner said. "I couldn't be happier for our current players to have Julia Burden, Emily Feller and Alana Graves as future teammates in 2020. The signing of these three players is the first step in addressing the initial needs of the program for the fall of 2020."