Brewster has been the BIG EAST Player of the Week eight times during her career and a tournament MVP on five occasions.

Lauren Brewster Tabbed UTSA Dome Rally MVP & BIG EAST Player Of The Week

Sept. 12, 2005

Senior All-America middle blocker Lauren Brewster (Brentwood, Tenn./Brentwood H.S.) was named the MVP of the UTSA Dome Rally, one of the top in-season tournaments in the country in 2005, late Sunday and followed that up by being tabbed the BIG EAST Player of the Week – for the second straight week – on Monday. She led Notre Dame to upsets of #8 USC and #6 Florida en route to being the only 3-0 team in the event. Irish senior OH Lauren Kelbley (Bascom, Ohio/Hopewell-Loudon H.S.) also earned a spot on the all-tournament team.

In three matches over the weekend, Brewster had 52 kills (5.20) and 18 blocks (1.80) for 63.5 points (6.35). Her top performance came in the de facto championship match, when she had 20 kills in only three games vs. Florida (6.67 per game), making just two errors for a .429 hitting mark. Brewster also was in on seven blocks (2.33), including a pair of the solo variety. She also had 17 kills and seven blocks in the four-game victory vs. the Women of Troy, as well as 15 kills and five blocks in a sweep of Oklahoma. Brewster, who last week was tabbed the National Player of the Week by Collegiate Volleyball Update, was a leader of a defensive effort that averaged 3.90 blocks per game in holding opponents to a .149 attack percentage. ND’s three opponents came into the tournament hitting .277 on the season.

Brewster copped her second MVP award in as many tournaments this season, having earned the honor in the Shamrock Invitational earlier this month. It was her fifth career tournament-MVP accolade, after gaining the same award in the 2003 Shamrock Invitational and both the Cal Poly Invitational and the BIG EAST Championship in ’04.

She has now been the league’s player of the week on eight occasions, which is tops in program history. This is just the third time an Irish player has been BIG EAST Player of the Week in back-to-back weeks, after MB Mary Leffers did so in 1999 (Oct. 4 and 11) and Brewster accomplished the feat in 2003 (Oct. 6 and 13). Only once since the latter time has a player from any school earned the honor in consecutive weeks; last year’s league player of the year, MH Megan Miller from Pittsburgh, won the honor on Nov. 17, 2003, before sharing it on Sept. 6, 2004. Due largely to the conference’s past penchant for honoring multiple players, this marks the first time in the 11 seasons since Notre Dame joined the conference that a player (from any school) has been the solo player of the week in consecutive weeks.

Kelbley also was an integral part of the Irish success, finishing with 40 kills (4.00) and 10 blocks (1.00) for 51 points (5.10). She also again was the top server for Notre Dame, finishing with five aces (0.50) and serving up a key nine-point run in the third game against USC, an 11-point run in game three against Oklahoma, and three spurts of four or more points vs. the Gators. She was the top offensive performer against the Women of Troy, matching her career high (first done on Oct. 10, 2004, vs. Seton Hall) with 25 kills on .273 hitting. Kelbley was outstanding in crunch time for the Irish, cranking consecutive kills with Notre Dame down a game and 29-27 vs. USC, in a stretch that turned around the tournament for the Irish. In the third game, Kelbley had kills on three of the final four points after the score was 27-25, and she also came through with a kill on match point. Against Florida, she ended game one with a kill and responded to a 28-28 tie in game three with a kill and then a solo block on match point.

It was the fifth time in Kelbley’s career she has been selected to an all-tournament team, following similar honors in the 2002 Shamrock Invitational, Pepperdine’s Four Points Sheraton Classic and Texas’ Longhorn Classic (also MVP) in ’03, and the ’04 Cal Poly-Best Western Invitational.

The UTSA Dome Rally, which took place in the same venue that will host the NCAA final four, featured eight teams that came into the tournament with a combined record of 32-5 (.865). Four were ranked in the national top 20, while another was receiving votes in the AVCA poll. The event featured seven players that earned All-America honors a season ago.

Notre Dame’s performance over the weekend was notable in several ways. It marked the first time in program history that the Irish beat a pair of top-10 squads in a single weekend, and the Irish knocked off a pair of top-eight teams after having beaten squads ranked in the top eight on just three total occasions in the past. ND had beaten USC and Florida on just one prior occasion each, and not since 1995. The Irish, who won nine straight games after losing the first one of the weekend, became the first team to sweep the Gators in more than two years (since 8/22/03 vs. #1 and eventual undefeated national champion USC). Florida had not been swept by a team other than the Women of Troy since Sept. 1, 2001, against #6 Arizona. They had not been beaten by a team ranked as low as 19th since 1998 and hadn’t been swept by a team that low since 1994.

Brewster now has had 20+ kills six times in her career and has been in double figures in the category in 10 straight matches and 16 of the last 17. She ranks among the Notre Dame career leaders in several categories: hitting percentage (2nd, .313), block average (2nd, 1.66), total blocks (3rd, 571), block assists (3rd, 486), solo blocks (6th, 85), kill average (6th, 3.27), and matches with 10+ kills (9th, 59). The Brentwood, Tenn., native was a first-team all-BIG EAST selection in both 2003 and ’04 after earning honorable-mention accolades as a rookie (when she also was the conference’s rookie of the week once).

Other members of the all-tournament team were Florida setter Angie McGinnis (41 assists, 15 digs, four blocks, .172 team hitting vs. ND), USC libero Debora Seilhamer (36 digs vs. ND), and outside hitters Jelena Mijatovic of LSU, Oyala Pazo of Rice, and Laura Jones from Texas A&M.

Brewster, Kelbley and the Irish stand 6-0 and figure to rise from 19th in the rankings when this week’s set is released later today. Notre Dame was scheduled to resume action in the Nokia Sugar Bowl Classic in New Orleans, La., this weekend, facing Louisiana State on Friday and Tulane on Saturday. In light of Hurricane Katrina, the Irish will not make that trip, but a finalized plan has not yet been made, as to whether ND will play any matches at all and where they would be contested. Check back to the official site of Irish athletics, und.com, this week for more information.