Seniors reflect on last season as Hoosiers

As the IU volleyball team's season winds down, players and coaches are starting to look ahead to next year. For four Hoosiers, the next year in their life will be drastically different from those of the players and coaches they leave behind.\nSeniors Melissa Brewer, Beth Heimann, Nikki Hill and Monique Pritz will all be graduating in the spring, officially ending their four year careers at IU. The four seniors have been through the ups and downs that come with major collegiate athletics, from two appearances in the NCAA Tournament to a frustrating senior campaign that has the Hoosiers near the bottom of the Big Ten standings.\n"Boy, they've had a great four years," IU coach Katie Weismiller said. "You look at their numbers and our results, and they've had a great four years."\nBrewer, a middle blocker from Bloomington, has been a model of consistency during her stretch at IU. \nBrewer, a biology major, will be headed to medical school following her graduation and credits the sport of volleyball for teaching her valuable life lessons that will serve her as she progresses through medical school.\n"Volleyball has taught me the most lessons about time management and stress and everything that I could have ever asked for," Brewer said. "I think that I'm very prepared for what awaits me."\nOn Oct. 15 against Purdue, Brewer etched her name into the Hoosier record books becoming the IU all-time leader with 407 block assists in her career. As the season has rolled on so has Brewer, with her record now at 441. She also ranks second on the IU all-time kills list with 1,470 and is ninth in the Big Ten this season averaging 1.19 blocks per games. \nWhen Heimann graduates in the spring, she'll be eyeing a career in marketing in Indianapolis. The Decatur, Ind., native played only three years of volleyball at IU, sitting out the 2001 campaign before returning to the squad in 2002. \nThis season, Heimann leads the Hoosiers with 289 digs and ranks seventh in the Big Ten with those numbers. With her days as a student-athlete coming to a close, Heimann looks forward to what awaits her.\n"Its always scary because it's a new step in our lives, but I feel like volleyball has definitely taken us in that direction because of all the time management skills that we've developed and balancing all the different things with our schedules, so I feel like I'm as ready as anyone could be at this time," Heimann said.\nHill, a native of Muncie, Ind., came to IU as an explosive offensive player and displayed those skills early on in her career. Despite her injuries last year, Hill still managed to appear in all 33 matches for the Hoosiers during the year. Hill who is still trying to shake off the after-effects of her injuries, ranks fourth on the team with 150 digs. \n"When you look at Nikki she has improved tremendously," Weismiller said. "Unfortunately she had pretty major surgery in the spring of last year, and I don't think she's was able to do as much as she would've liked to offensively this year. And now she's playing more of a defensive role. She's put in four great years here."\nLike all of the Hoosier seniors, Hill's successes reach far beyond the volleyball court. She was a recipient of the Arthur Ashe, Jr., Sports Scholar Award, which is presented to student-athletes of color who have maintained a grade point average of 3.2 or higher and have demonstrated a record of service to the campus or community. \nPritz, the fourth and final member of the Hoosier senior class, has used her senior year as an opportunity to display her offensive skills and has impressed both her teammates and coaches. \n"I kept saying her senior year was going to be her best, and it certainly has been," Weismiller said. "You look at her as she's matured and grown over four years. She's really having a great senior year. She's a quiet leader, a great person, and she's becoming one of our go to offensive players." \nDuring their four years at IU, the four seniors have displayed the values that the coaching staff and university strive for each student-athlete to achieve and learn. \n"When we go through the recruiting process one of the first things we talk about is finding well-rounded athletes," Weismiller said. "Our goal is one, that you academically get a degree that you can be proud of, two that you become the best volleyball player that you can be, and three that you get a chance to experience all that college has to offer. And these four have."\n-- Contact staff writer Matt Glenesk at mglenesk@indiana.edu.