“Valley's Blair Brown Helps Penn State To Fourth National Title; Named Volleyball Honda Sports Award Finalist” plus 1 more |
| Posted: 24 Feb 2011 07:11 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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| BYU volleyball: Cougars struggle to beat Tritons Posted: 24 Feb 2011 10:30 PM PST Published: Thursday, Feb. 24, 2011 11:20 p.m. MST PROVO — Judging from the reactions of the BYU men's volleyball team Thursday night, it would have been hard to figure out they got a victory. After winning the first two games, the Cougars (12-4, 8-3 in Mountain Pacific Sports Federation play) dropped the next two and almost let the deciding game slip away to an inferior UC San Diego (6-11, 3-8) squad. Instead, the Cougars captured four of the match's last five points to capture the win in five games, 25-22, 25-21, 23-25, 29-31, 15-12. "Even though we won the first two games, we weren't playing well," BYU's Kevin Sagers, who finished with 14 kills, said. "I don't know if we just thought we could use our athleticism to win or what." In the third game, UC San Diego won the last four points to turn a 21-23 deficit into a 25-23 win. Then the Tritons backed it up by gutting out a fourth game that went into extra time. Tied at 23 apiece, Robb Stowell's kill gave the Cougars match point, but the visitors got the next two points. From there, it went back and forth, as the two teams were tied four more times. But UCSD came up with two key blocks, the last by Calvin Ross, to send the match into the final and fifth game. A stunned BYU crowd watched as Sebastian Brady — who came up with 15 kills for the Tritons — produced a big kill to give his team a 3-1 lead and put the Cougars' all-time series record of 28-0 against UCSD in jeopardy. After BYU tied it at 6-6, three straight points gave them the supposed cushion they needed. But the Tritons tied things once again at 11 all, before the Cougars closed out the match, the final points coming from a Stowell kill and a block by Otavio Souza. "I don't know if we did refocus (in the fifth set)," Sagers replied when asked what the players did to regroup. "I think we just got kind of lucky, and a few bounces went our way." After the game, BYU head coach Rob Neilson lamented his team's service errors, which totaled 26. "This team has made tremendous strides with our serves, so it was tough to watch tonight, making that many errors," he said. Outside hitter Taylor Sander sat out the first game due to academic violations, and didn't see action until the fifth game. It was hard to find any positives, but Sagers managed to. "If you can fall short as much as we did and still win, you're a good team," he said. Acknowledging the victory, Neilson wouldn't even concede that much. "I want to feel good about the way we play," Neilson said. "We won, but I don't feel great about it. We didn't play the BYU brand of volleyball we are capable of." Stowell had a game-high 23 kills for the Cougars. Carl Eberts led the Tritons with 17 kills. The same two teams tangle again tonight at 7 p.m. in the Smith Fieldhouse. 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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