After last season’s breakout, both senior Julia Brown and the NC State volleyball team are looking to win the ACC and make it to the NCAA tournament.
For Brown, however, expectations are that she will improve her All-ACC and All-East Region appearances into an All-American this year.
“That would be awesome,” Brown said. “Each game I go into, I have an open mind and I do my best, but that would be really cool.”
Head coach Linda Hampton-Keith, who is heading into her second season leading the Pack, knows Brown has high expectations for herself.
“What’s really great about Julia is that [my expectations] aren’t as high as what she expects for herself,” Hampton-Keith said. “So my expectation for her is to continue to grow, and learn and challenge herself to continue to be better.”
As one of six seniors on the team this year, Brown’s leadership will be important to the team due to there being 11 freshmen and sophomores this season.
“With the role she played last year I think she earned a lot of credibility with the team,” Hampton-Keith said. “Not just in terms of getting kills and being recognized but how she showed up every day. She works hard, she’s a great teammate and so I think she’s earned that respect from her team. It’s a really special quality that she has.”
Hampton-Keith also praised Brown’s work ethic.
“She’s a coach’s dream from the standpoint of she’s always giving 110 percent; there is never a day that I feel like she is not doing her best, in whatever it is that she’s doing,” Hampton-Keith said.
Brown is ready for the two upcoming games against eighth-ranked Kansas Friday and Saturday.
“I’m really excited for our game against Kansas.” Brown said, “This is the first time we get to play that team, but we are really excited to get the season started.”
The Pack’s head coach is eager to see her team take on a tough opponent as well.
“We are definitely challenging ourselves right out the gate,” Hampton-Keith said. “So we’re excited about that opportunity.”
Other big nonconference games include matches against Florida and Auburn in Puerto Rico. The team will open up ACC play with a matchup against North Carolina, as it looks to capture an ACC title and NCAA Tournament berth this season.
Brown is looking forward to seeing what her teammates can do this season as well.
“I’m really excited to [see] what [freshman OPP Melissa Evans] can do this year,” Brown said. “Both setters [junior Kylie Pickrell and junior Becky Porter], I’m excited to see what they both do and [redshirt sophomore DS] Makenzie Kuchmaner, in the back row, has been doing a great job. She’s improved so much, she’s always working really hard. I’m excited to see what she does this season.”
As for Brown, it will certainly be difficult to beat her program record of 489 kills and career-best 327 digs from a season ago, but it is doable. Her 19 aces and 22 assists also helped her team to its 20-12 record last season.
A second year in Hampton-Keith’s system should help the team beat its new record of 13 ACC wins from a year ago and give it the stepping stone to become a nationally-recognized program. After its first-ever win against a top-10 ranked team last year and an opportunity for more early in the season with a few big matchups on the slate, NC State volleyball has a chance to take another step forward this year.
