White & Blue Review is previewing the 2014 Creighton Bluejays volleyball season. You can check out all the preview posts here to read position-by-position breakdowns leading up to the season opening invitational at Kansas.
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One of the Creighton Bluejays volleyball team’s most solid position is at middle blocker. Two solid veterans anchor the core — Kelli Browning and Lauren Smith.
Check out photos from the Blue-White scrimmage!
Browning has had a wild ride since joining the Bluejay volleyball team three seasons ago. After decommitting to Wisconsin and joining the Bluejays, Browning has turned into one of the top players in the nation. Heading into her senior season, things could fall into place where the program will reach new heights.
“I knew coming in that we could do great things coming into Creighton and that was something I wanted to be a part of,” said Browning. “It is like history in the making here. It has been awesome to be a part of this team and where we are going.”
Browning started her career as a Bluejay slowly, playing behind Laurel Sanford and Heather Thorson. After Sanford went down for several games early in the season, Browning would have been a logical choice to get a lot of playing time, but saw limited time and even struggled at times when thrown into the mix early. That following spring, Browning worked hard on a lot of things, including changing her swing. Her sophomore season saw a meteoric rise, capping it as the MVC Defensive Player of the Year and leading the nation with 204 blocks.
Last season with Creighton joining the Big East, Browning was the early favorite for the Big East Player of the Year. Although not named the POY, Browning did finish the year as an All Big-East First Team selection and became the fastest player to reach 300 blocks in program history. Heading into her senior season, she has 422 career blocks as well as a career hitting percentage that is 37 points higher than the next person in the list. She could also walk way at the top of the career block list.
“Kelli has been such a key cog both offensively and blocking-wise,” said CU head coach Kirsten Bernthal-Booth. “She has really jumped on the national stage for her blocking standpoint. She is one of the top blockers in the country. But offensively she hits at a high clip. I think she is phenomenal in the past two seasons. She talks a lot about Big East championships and Sweet 16. She is a great story.”
For the past two seasons, Browning has led the Bluejays in hitting percentage, total blocks, and blocks per set. While the team has gone to the NCAA Tournament the past two seasons, getting past the round of 32 is still on the list of things to do.
“I think right now we really want to get past that round,” Browning told WBR. “I think we can go to the Sweet 16 or the Elite 8. Why not us? Why can’t we win a National Championship at this school?”
Browning, along with teammates Jess Bird and Leah McNary, had the opportunity to work with the U.S. National Team this summer. With only 36 players from across the nation selected to participate in this, it was pretty significant for the program. But, now with only the upcoming season to play, a lot of this has gone pretty fast for the senior.
“It is so weird. I cannot believe I am already to my senior year. It doesn’t feel like it. We have talked about some big goals out there. There is an urgency to get things done. It kind of helps that when we are in practice, and running sprints, that there only so many times we will have this opportunity to get better and do this. It is a big motivation for us,” Browning said.
Playing the other blocker position is redshirt sophomore Lauren Smith. She debuted last season after her redshirt year and showed what that extra year has done for her game. Smith finished fourth on the team in kills and third in hitting percentage. Her own transformation continues with some impressive play during the Blue/White scrimmage last Friday night. Smith, out of Lincoln Pius, manned the middle and led the Blue team with 13 kills and 5 blocks and finished the night with 14 kills and 6 blocks. She was all over the court and explained how she plays.
“It is good to hear that I am not missing a lot. I don’t really think about that,” said Smith after the scrimmage. “I just focus on getting my feet to the ball and the passes were great. The advantage of having three great setters made it easy to get there and work as a team. No matter what team I am on, I always feel I can trust my passers and setters. I think we play really scrappy. It is good to know you have your teammates to back you up. Everyone is working really, really hard.”
Smith was honored as the Big East Freshman of the week twice during conference season and was a member of the Big East All-Tournament team and started 31 of 32 matches last season. She has helped create a solid two-player team with Browning to make the Creighton blockers one of the toughest in the nation.
With the starters pretty well set at this position, the Bluejays have two other incoming freshman that may make an impact in the future, Marysa Wilkinson and Brittany Lawrence.
Wilkinson had an impressive night in the Blue-White scrimmage on Friday. The freshman from Lincoln Southwest played on both teams and combined for 12 kills and six digs. Wilkinson played outside hitter last season as a high school senior and earned 1st team all-state honors. But her experience is at middle blocker where she will likely play as a Bluejay, but you never know.
Lawrence, from North Platte St. Pat’s, has a lot of potential with her size at 6’4″ and her large wingspan. She owns career records for kills (1,269), aces (160) and blocks (340) while leading her team to a 30-3 record last season. Right now her talent is raw and could benefit from a redshirt year like Smith did her freshman year.
Browning hopes that her leadership can rub off to the freshmen and others on the team for a potentially exciting season.
“I hope they see me as a leader. I try my best to be a positive influence on the freshman coming in and the people around here. Everyone works to make each other better.”