Ashley Zobel, a high school basketball standout from Ida Grove, Iowa, has signed a letter of intent to play basketball at Briar Cliff University beginning with the 2011-12 season.

"Ashley is going to be a great player for us, and we really think she has a bright future here at BCU," said Briar Cliff head coach Mike Power. "Ashley not only brings the obvious skill set to our program, but also we have just added another person with great character."

The 5-9 point guard attended Odebolt Arthur-Battle Creek Ida Grove (OA-BCIG) High School and as a Falcon she played and had great success in the Western Valley (North) Conference. Zobel earned 15 varsity letters throughout her high school career in softball (1), track (3), golf (3), volleyball (4), and basketball (4).

Zobel earned numerous awards and honors as a Falcon. As a freshman basketball player, she was named second team all-conference. She then earned first team all-conference accolades in both basketball and volleyball and second team all-conference in golf, sophomore year. Last season, she averaged 13.4 ppg, 5.2 rpg, 4.0 apg and 3.0 spg for the Falcons. She shot 41.4 percent from the field and connected on 41.2 percent of her three-pointers (49). Following her junior basketball season, she was named first team all-conference, first team all-district, all-western Iowa and first team 2A all-Iowa. She was also selected to the 2A state all-tournament team. She was also a first team all-conference and first team all-district golfer, junior year.

Zobel was a member of the National Honor Society. In addition, she was on the gold honor roll at OA-BCIG, and was named Western Valley all-conference/all-academic. In addition, National Honor Society member is involved in choir, band, FCCLA, and Lutheran Youth Fellowship. The daughter of Brad and Jackie Zobel plans to study sports science at Briar Cliff.

"This is exciting for us, and I know that the BCU community is going to enjoy watching Ashley play her college years in a Briar Cliff uniform," stated Power.

Zobel joins a Briar Cliff program which went 28-8 last season and reached the Fab Four of the NAIA Div. II Women's Basketball National Championship, which is held in the Chargers' backyard (Sioux City, Iowa). The Chargers were a regular in the national rankings last season, climbing as high as No. 4.