“Valley's Blair Brown Helps Penn State To Fourth National Title; Named Volleyball Honda Sports Award Finalist” plus 1 more |
| Posted: 18 Feb 2011 06:58 AM PST Saturday night Purcellville resident Blair Brown managed to surpass even her most spectacular previous athletic accomplishments, helping her Penn State Nittany Lions teammates win an unprecedented four straight National Women's Volleyball Championship. The championship round is a best of five contest, but the Lions won three straight over California to gain the championship in Kansas City, MO. Playing for a team that is one of the most dominant women's volleyball forces ever, Brown herself is proving herself a dominant player nationwide. Brown has been named one of four finalists for the 2010-1011 Honda Sports Award, which determines the top woman collegiate athlete in volleyball. Her competitors include Texas' Juliann Faucette; USC's Alex Jupiter; and Cal's Carli Lloyd, all three of whom she knows well and against whom she has played often. The winner will be a candidate for the Collegiate Woman Athlete of the Year award. A member of the 2010 National Championship All-Tournament Team, Brown is the 10th Nittany Lion to be named a finalist for the Honda Award for volleyball. The 6'5" tall Brown, who was a standout performer on the Loudoun Valley High School girls' volleyball team, helped the school win the Group AA State Volleyball Championship in 2004. In 2004 and 2005, she was named the Virginia Gatorade Player of the Year. She graduated from Valley in 2006. After being red-shirted her first year at Penn State because of an ankle injury, she returned to the court in 2007 and was named to the Big Ten on the all-freshmen team. Over the past three years, Brown increased her importance to the Penn State team. Her stats and honors are impressive. Earlier this season, she became the sixth straight Nittany Lion to be named the Big Ten Player of the Year. She is a three-time AVCA All American. A three-time All-Big Ten selection, she earned Second Team laurels in 2008 and First Team honors in 2009 and 2010. Brown has started all 37 matches this season and leads the Nittany Lions with 521 kills, averaging 4.24 kills per set on .320 hitting. She is second on the team with 281 digs and 113 total blocks. Her 4.24 kills per set ranks second in the Big Ten and 21st nationally, while her .323 attack percentage ranks ninth in the league. Her 4.72 points per set ranks 18th in the country. Brown earned conference player of the week laurels three times. She surpassed the 1,000 career kills milestone this season and closed out her career with 1,295 kills. Brown is the 22-year-old daughter of Sgt. Jeff Brown, supervisor of the Robbery/Homicide unit of Criminal Investigations in the Loudoun County Sheriff's Office, and Jaima Brown. Her volleyball coach at Valley remembered his former player with affection. "She was a wonderful young lady, who never lost sight of her family and whom she came from," Laird Johnson said, calling her "gracious" in her approach to teammates and opponents alike. A popular member of the Valley volleyball team, nevertheless she was also "extremely competitive," he recalled. But it was a competitiveness that never got out of hand. "She kept everything in perspective," Johnson said-no easy feat considering her success. Much of the credit for Brown being so balanced Johnson attributed to her parents, who "have done everything physically and financially" to support her career as a player. "Early on they realized she was a very special player and athlete, and they supported her 100 percent. They traveled with her everywhere, gave all the support she needed," he said. So did her brother Tyler, a county deputy who played golf at Valley. And her family was in Kansas City, Jeff, Jaima and Tyler, to see the culmination of Brown's college career. "It's been a fun, fun ride," her father said Monday, hardly believing that Saturday night's championship win was not the only glittering honor facing his daughter. "It's a tremendous award (the Honda Sports Award) to be considered for," he said. Fierce competitors all year, the four finalists for the Honda Sports Award nevertheless are friends and hold each other in the highest regard, Jeff Brown said. One of the highlights the Brown family will take away from the championship occurred on the academic front. Having been injured her first year and red-shirted, Blair Brown is a fifth year senior. Her graduation was set to occur Dec. 18, the night of the finals. Penn State President Graham Spanier is "quite a volleyball fan," Jeff Brown said. When Spanier called Coach Russ Rose to say he would not be able to make the Nittany Lions' final games because of graduation ceremonies, he learned that Brown would not be able to make his graduation event either, as she had her other "graduation" to attend to. Providing a personal note that touched Brown, her family and her teammates, Spanier came to the team's final practice before boarding the plane to Kansas City wearing his full academic regalia and handing Brown a cap and gown for her graduation, which he performed on the spot at the end of the practice. "She put the cap and gown over her uniform. You could see her knee pads under the gown," her father said. "We were all totally shocked; she cried, and so did her teammates," he recalled. "I'm very proud of her, she's a great kid," he said. Right now Brown is being flooded with offers to play professionally, either in the U.S. or abroad, including Brazil and Puerto Rico. But, she's taking a break from it all, although she will make up her mind as to future career choices in a couple of months. "She's off on vacation, visiting her boyfriend in Switzerland," he said. Reader Comments The following are comments from the readers. In no way do they represent the view of Leesburg Today. 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| International volleyball event is coming to Tulsa Posted: 18 Feb 2011 12:33 AM PST The No. 5 U.S. men's national team will take on top-ranked Brazil. Published: 2/18/2011 2:26 AM Last Modified: 2/18/2011 4:57 AM Tulsa will play host to the Volleyball World League's Intercontinental Round this summer, the Tulsa Sports Commission announced Thursday.The event pits the U.S. men's national volleyball team, ranked No. 5 in the world, against No. 1-ranked and defending champion Brazil. The two teams will play a pair of matches at the University of Tulsa's Reynolds Center June 24-25. "It's another great step for the university's volleyball program and a terrific event for the city of Tulsa and the University of Tulsa for us to host," said TU athletic director Bubba Cunningham. "The Brazilian national team is a great feather in the cap for this community." The Tulsa Sports Commission estimates a draw of some 5,000 visitors and $324,000 to the local economy. "It is critical we take every opportunity to get Tulsa in front of new and unique audiences," said Doug Stuart, chair of the volunteer board for the commission, "and this allows us to do that." Ticket information will be announced later. The event will be broadcast to 120 countries and will be televised by Versus. "It's an international event, which is very important for Tulsa, as we want to be bigger than just Tulsa," said TSC executive director Ray Hoyt, who said future bids are being made on the 2013, '14 and '15 events. The 2011 World League - which operates under the Federation of International Volleyball, or FIVB - begins its Intercontinental Round on May 27 and continues for six weekends until July 1. The final round will be July 6-10 in Gdansk, Poland.The event pits teams from 16 countries split into four pools playing two matches per week, with the top two in each group advancing to final-round play in Poland. As the host team, Poland is guaranteed a spot in the final round. Pool A consists of Brazil, Poland, USA and Puerto Rico. Team USA is in Poland on May 27, then visits Puerto Rico on June 3 and Brazil on June 10. Team USA won the World League in 2008. Brazil has won every other World League title since 2003. World League play began in 1990. Teams are paid prize money. After winning last year's final round in Argentina, the Brazilian team earned more than $1 million. Volleyball World LeagueINTERCONTINENTAL ROUNDReynolds Center, University of Tulsa June 24-25 Pool A: Brazil vs. USA. Brazil is ranked as the No. 1 team in the world. The United States is ranked No. 5. John E. Hoover 581-8384 john.hoover@tulsaworld.com This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
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