Volleyball | 11/15/2018 6:15:00 PM
MOON TOWNSHIP, Pa. -- Already one of the top performing teams on campus academically, the
Robert Morris volleyball team is celebrating another honor in the classroom for one of its top players.
Second-year setter
Whitney Brown was named to the the Google Cloud Academic All-District II First Team Thursday, as selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA). The 5'7", Pittsburgh-raised sophomore is the first RMU volleyball player to receive this distinction, given to the nation's top student-athletes for their combined performances athletically and academically, since
April Krivoniak did so after her senior season in 2016.
Brown is the eighth different player in program history to make the CoSIDA Academic All-District team, joining Megan Bell (2005), Alaina Gibson (2007, '08), Amanda Graham (2008, '09, '10), Lisa Jaszka (2005, '06), Darcey Miller (2004), Janette Schneider (2005, '06) and Krivoniak (2015, '16).
Furthermore, this marks the fourth time under head coach
Dale Starr that one of the Colonials has made the cut.
"It's a tremendous honor. Whitney does an unbelievable job in the classroom, and I know that's her number one goal while pursuing a medical career," Starr said. "Her play on the court backed up that nomination to the [All-District] Team. As her career moves on, I think she's going to become a staple on that team and a real contender for Academic All-American."
The former Avonworth High School standout has carried a 4.0 grade point average at Robert Morris while majoring in Biology. Brown received three NEC Prime Performer selections this season from the Northeast Conference, most recently for her Week 7 efforts.
She averaged 10.62 assists per set versus St. Francis Brooklyn and eventual conference champion LIU Brooklyn Oct. 5-6, her best weekend clip against NEC competition. Brown finished her sophomore campaign third in the NEC with 8.01 assists per set overall and fourth in the conference with 7.67 per set in NEC play. She is now sixth in RMU history with a career average of 6.45 per set.
Brown had a career-high 58 assists versus Loyola (Md.) in RMU's five-set win (21-25, 31-29, 25-20, 23-25, 15-13) Sept. 7, tying for the most single-match assists by a Colonial in NCAA volleyball's 25-point era (2008-present). Only two other RMU players (Darcey Miller, Tawnya Storino) have ever registered more assists in a five-set match, and the last one with 58 was
Hannah Hoffman versus Bryant Oct. 8, 2011.
Her first season as a starting collegiate setter was filled with superlatives early. She set a career high in total blocks with six against Middle Tennessee at the Catamount Classic in Cullowhee, North Carolina, the state in which she was born, Aug. 25. Facing Eastern Michigan in the RMU Sheraton Innvitational Sept. 14, Brown registered a career-best 18 kills and five digs in a come-from-behind, five-set triumph (19-25, 27-25, 15-25, 27-25, 15-13).
Previously, Brown's career-high five service aces were critical to another five-set victory (25-21, 13-25, 11-25, 27-25, 15-8) by the Colonials, at UMBC in the Charm City Challenge, Sept. 7 in Baltimore. She became the sixth different Robert Morris player to record that many in a five-set match.
Brown was one of five former WPIAL (Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic League) players on the 2018 team, the most ever on a Starr-coached RMU squad.
Click here for the complete CoSIDAÂ Academic All-District Volleyball Teams.
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