In a season where N.C. State’s volleyball team had great success on the court, one player in particular shined off the court: recently-graduated middle blocker Brie Merriwether.
In December, Merriwether received Capital One Academic All-America Division I third team honors, selected by the College Sports Information Directions of America. Merriwether, majoring in biological sciences, earned Dean’s List honors during all four of her years at State and accumulated a 3.98 GPA, which more than qualified her for the award’s GPA requirement of 3.3.
Along with Merriwether, seven other players from around the nation were selected to the third team, including Duke senior defensive specialist Ali McCurdy, a three-time ACC Defensive Player of the Year.
While the Academic All-America honor was the greatest of Merriwether’s college career, she is no stranger to academic accolades. For the second consecutive year, Merriwether was selected to the Capital One Academic All-District Team first team. She was also selected to the All-ACC Academic team during her junior year and will likely receive the same honor this June when the 2013-14 team is announced.
“We’re very happy for her,” head coach Bryan Bunn said of Merriwether. “She was obviously very diligent about her schoolwork and was very compelled to succeed, and she did.”
Bunn personally recruited Merriwether from Oviedo High School in Florida, where she had a 4.0-plus GPA and played active roles in various school organizations, including student government and Beta Club. Bunn said academic performance plays a significant role in the recruiting process.
“We look for people who are good students and good volleyball players,” Bunn said. “It’s nice to have those people who believe that it’s as important to succeed in the classroom just as much as it is to succeed on the volleyball court.”
Merriwether came into the program in 2010 and made an instant impact, starting in 27 of the Wolfpack’s 30 games that season.
Throughout her four-year career as a member of the Pack, Merriwether totaled more than 1,000 points and posted a career average of just under one block per set. She led the team in total and solo blocks during her junior and senior years and finished in the top 10 in the ACC in total blocks per set this past season.
Merriwether said her aptitude for blocking took work, especially when transitioning to the college level.
“It’s definitely a lot about vision, something that I didn’t have a lot of as a freshman,” Merriwether said. “In college, the game is so much faster. It’s all about seeing what’s happening before it happens. I worked on my vision and balance so I could make effective moves.”
Merriwether was also a key player in the Pack’s historic 2012 season, in which the team made the NCAA tournament for the first time since 1987. In State’s first round NCAA tournament match against Texas A&M, Merriwether notched four kills and a block, including one kill late in the first set that helped State secure its first NCAA tournament set win in school history.
Bunn said that State is losing a true leader next season.
“[She has meant] a great deal,” Bunn said. “She set an example on how to train hard. We never had to talk her once about her effort or her desire. All the girls saw how hard she studied and it paid off.”
Since graduating, Merriwether has enrolled in the chiropractic program at Life University in Marietta, Ga., where she intends to gain the education needed to become a chiropractor.
