“Valley's Blair Brown Helps Penn State To Fourth National Title; Named Volleyball Honda Sports Award Finalist” plus 1 more |
| Posted: 27 Feb 2011 08:58 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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| Loran Smith: New UGA volleyball coach set for success Posted: 27 Feb 2011 06:09 PM PST While sitting in Lizzy Stemke's office at the University of Georgia's Ramsey Center, a flood of reflections came rushing to the forefront. The affiliations in her life and career with familiar sports figures stimulate confidence that she has the foundation for preeminent success as the school's volleyball coach, a position she took over this past December. Friendships and affiliations don't guarantee victories or championships, but it is clear that she and her husband, Kevin, who played football at Wisconsin, have always been linked with successful coaches and winning traditions — and at least one Bulldog she never knew. Immediately, there was a flashback to the time of Bernie Ramsey, a small-town matriculate at Georgia who took his business degree, shrewd financial judgment, investment savvy and opportune timing to Wall Street. There, he amassed a small fortune, part of which he shared with his alma mater. If Lizzy had known the late Bernard Ramsey — the Ramsey Center is named for his wife — it is likely that they would have immediately formed a mutual admiration society. They would have bonded with a handclasp of affection and a high-fiving respect toward making a great university even greater. I thought of Bernie Ramsey, a remarkable alumnus, as Lizzy and I reminisced about mutual friends and liaisons, along with her enthusiasm for taking Bulldog volleyball to the top. She is the daughter of Billy Fitzgerald, who coached basketball and baseball at Isidore Newman High School in New Orleans, where a trio of kids named Manning — Cooper, Peyton and Eli — came under his tutelage. "Lizzy was a fine athlete whose father has influenced a lot of kids, including ours," Archie Manning said. "Our kids were crazy about Billy Fitzgerald. She will do well as a head coach." Lizzy's older brother, Edmond, played basketball at Ole Miss; younger brother, Robert, played baseball at Tennessee; and sister, Meg, volleyball at Florida. Any casual observer would say her DNA makes her a good fit for life as a coach. "We grew up in gyms," she said with an appreciative smile. Lizzy made All-America in volleyball at Wisconsin, the only Fitzgerald to leave the Southland, but a highlight of her life was to come about from that change of address. It was in Madison that she met her husband, Kevin, the inaugural winner of the Ray Guy Award, something of a Georgia tie for the Stemkes. He played for Barry Alvarez, who gave the Badgers a Rose Bowl comeback after a 31-year drought, convincing folks in Madison that their team could compete against the dominant teams in the Big Ten — Michigan and Ohio State — and reminding everybody there were two teams in the state of Wisconsin that could win football championships. (Not everybody in the state waves Packers green and gold.) Lizzy came to Athens from Nebraska, where she was an assistant volleyball coach on teams that made four NCAA appearances and won a national championship. Prior to her stay in Lincoln, she was an assistant at North Carolina. Her resumé reveals that at Nebraska she was multifaceted, handling everything from recruiting to academics to clinics and video management. "I thought Lizzy related well to her players, was a very hard worker, and obviously knows volleyball," Nebraska athletic director Tom Osborne praised in an e-mail. Interestingly, Lizzy the recruiter became the recruited. "Greg McGarity set the tone in the interview process and was so persuasive," she said. "I kept hearing what I wanted to hear. That he wants to be a pacesetter in all sports and that he will give us the resources to do our job. What more can you ask for?" "We know we will love the outdoor opportunities here, and we are great football fans. We are enthralled with sports on a college campus — the environment, camaraderie and excited crowds at an athletic contest. We hope to stay in college athletics for a lifetime. It is such a great way of life." Loran Smith is a contributing columnist for The Daily Citizen. You can write to him at loransmith@sports.uga.edu. 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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