“Valley's Blair Brown Helps Penn State To Fourth National Title; Named Volleyball Honda Sports Award Finalist” plus 1 more |
| Posted: 25 Feb 2011 06:50 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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| M. Volleyball. No. 1 USC Men's Volleyball Goes 5 Sets To Beat Long Beach State Posted: 25 Feb 2011 10:02 PM PST Feb. 25, 2011 The No. 1-ranked USC men's volleyball team--behind 4 players in double kill figures--fought back to post a 23-25, 25-20, 25-23, 23-25, 15-12 win at No. 6 Long Beach State in a closely-contested Mountain Pacific Sports Federation match on Friday (Feb. 25). It was only the fourth time in 11 matches this season that the Trojans were extended beyond 3 sets and it was USC's first 5-set victory of 2011. USC improved both its overall and MPSF records to 10-1. The Trojans are off to their best overall start since going 10-1 in 2000 and their best league start since also posting a 10-1 mark in 1994. LBSU dropped to 8-5 overall and 7-3 in the MPSF. Tony Ciarelli led USC in kills with 17 (hitting .341) and had 13 digs, Austin Zahn hit .524 with 14 kills, Tri Bourne had 13 kills, 12 digs and 3 blocks, Murphy Troy had 12 kills, 5 aces, 11 digs and 2 blocks, Steven Shandrick hit .474 with 9 kills and 5 blocks, Henry Cassiday had a career-high 18 digs and Riley McKibbin added 9 digs and 60 assists. The 49ers also had 4 players with double digits in kills. Jim Baughman had a match-leading 21 kills along with 4 aces, 10 digs and 4 blocks, Taylor Crabb added 16 kills, 2 aces and 9 digs, Brad Hemmerling had 11 kills and 3 blocks, Ryan Meehan had 10 kills (hitting. 562) with 6 blocks, Antwain Aguillard had 6 kills (hitting .417) with 5 blocks, Kirk Francis had a match-best 22 digs and Mike Klipsch had 10 digs with his 59 assists. USC outhit Long Beach State, .315 to .253, but the 49ers had the edge in blocks (11.5 to 7.0) and aces (8 to 6). Long Beach State got off to a 5-0 start in the first set and USC didn't catch up until 23-23, but a pair of Crabb kills closed the set as the 49ers hit .390 to the Trojans' .324. USC turned up its hitting in the second set (.444) and LBSU cooled off (.107), as the Trojans overcame a 12-7 deficit to tie it at 15-15 and then a bit later scored 5 unanswered points to forge a comfortable 23-18 margin. USC used a 4-point run (behind a pair of Troy aces) to go ahead 17-15 in the third set and held onto that lead. USC scored 5 consecutive points to tie the fourth set at 15-15, but then at 21-21 the 49ers got a combo block by Aguillard and Heimerling followed by a Heimerling kill to give LBSU the lead it needed. The final set went back and forth (USC hit .542 to LBSU's .400) until the Trojans scored the match's final 4 points, with Shandrick leading the way with 2 kills and a block assist in that late run. USC now returns home for the start of a 6-match homestand, beginning with back-to-back MPSF matches against No. 2 BYU on Friday (March 4) and Saturday (March 5) at 7 p.m. in the Galen Center. Former Trojan All-Americans and Olympians Dusty Dvorak and Celso Kalache will have their jerseys retired following the March 5 match.
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