Campus News

VOLLEYBALL: Adams fills role nicely for Lady Tigers

MARSHALL, Texas (10/28/09) – Perhaps the most telling sign of how important Kourtney Adams has become on the court for East Texas Baptist University’s team is that whenever the Lady Tigers need a side out or big point, most likely, the ball is coming to her.

That’s the sign of a go-to player. And most of the time in her first season at ETBU, Adams has delivered.

The Hallsville, Texas native enters this weekend’s regular season finale tournament at Southwestern University as the fourth-ranked player in kills per game in the American Southwest Conference, with an ETBU-best 3.28. However, in total kills on the year, Adams is tops in the league with 305.

But that only begins to tell the story of just how important Adams, a junior transfer who joined ETBU this season after two years at Panola College, has been to the Lady Tigers’ ninth straight run to the postseason. Head coach Lyndsay Mashe prefers to describe her junior outside hitter with adjectives such as "versatile” or "all-around” or "explosive.”

"Kourtney is playing all-around for us,” said Mashe, who as a player at ETBU back in 2003-04 noticed the impressive young Hallsville standout at camps around the area. "She’s been able to give us a lot of back row and plays back row as well as she does front row. She’s a great passer and plays great defense for us. She’s definitely fulfilled what I wanted from her no doubt about it.”

Back in the spring when Mashe really began thinking about the makeup of this year’s team through recruiting, she knew there were a couple of glaring issues staring at the 2009 Lady Tigers. First, ETBU had lost a great weapon with the graduation of two-time ASC East Division Player of the Year Katie Graves, the team’s kill leader the last two seasons.

Second, with a host of freshmen joining the program this fall, Mashe also realized she had just one returning upperclassmen – senior Jane Hays – and nothing else but sophomores and young first-year freshmen. The leadership void left by the departure of veteran standouts such as Graves, Traci Twardowski and Brooke McGehee was getting bigger by the minute.

Enter Adams, who turned down scholarship offers at bigger programs to join ETBU, just a 10-minute drive from her hometown. The 5-8 outside hitter has stepped in to the offensive hole left by Graves’ graduation and has become a team leader on and off the court, which is just exactly what Mashe hoped for when she began pursuing the two-time all-conference performer at Panola.

"I always wanted to be closer to home, just because I always wanted to be around my family,” said Adams. "I decided to go to Panola because they offered me a good scholarship, and I always thought it would be good to start off at a smaller place and get better. I came here because I really liked all the girls and the coaches and how they carried their program, and I wanted to come to a winning program.”

Adams is used to being around the gym and athletics in general. Her father, Roger Adams, is the head football coach at New Diana High School and was the coach and athletic director at Hallsville while Kourtney was dominating at the high school level. As a senior in 2006-07, Kourtney was Hallsville’s Athlete of the Year and was named All-State twice. She is a terrific all-around athlete, as evidenced by her being a three-time regional qualifier in the 100-meter hurdles, 300-meter hurdles, triple jump and mile relay with the Ladycats.

It was the athletic ability that attracted Mashe to Adams, but her ability to play all over the court has been a plus.

"She is such an explosive athlete, she can jump higher than anybody I’ve coached before,” Mashe said. "She also demands from the rest of her teammates to play hard. Her versatility allows us to keep her on the floor every play, and I know it wears players down but it does keep the cohesiveness of our team if we can keep them out on the floor.”

The marathon time on the floor – ETBU regularly has played just seven players, including libero Nicole Vanderlaan, in matches this season – isn’t new to Adams, who says she’s used to going with virtually no rest in games.

"I’ve pretty much always done that since I’ve been playing ball, so I’m used to it,” she said. "It’s good for me to stay out there and work.”

Her veteran leadership along with Hays’ tenacity and leadership has come in handy this season for a young team that has had to face all kinds of adversity. From breaking in virtually a new roster of players, to battling through the various injuries to even fighting a flu outbreak that knocked out entire practice sessions for the team recently, Adams says the Lady Tigers have stayed together and are looking forward to better things in the upcoming postseason.

"I really like this team,” she said. "We’re close, we play good together. I really look up to a lot of the girls on the team. (The adversity) shows we can play with whoever we have on the court, it doesn’t matter if it’s our starting six or other people coming in…we believe in each other and no matter what we’ve going to overcome. No matter if it’s sickness, injury or whatever, we’re a good enough team to overcome anything.”

Something that should be really scary for ETBU opponents the rest of this season is that Adams isn’t anywhere near satisfied with her performance.

"I really need to be more consistent and be more like the go-to player which I know I can be and I have been,” she said. "As a team we just need to play up to what we can do every game. We’ve got to come in and be sure of our ability and know we can take care of anyone we play.”