Nicole Fawcett | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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![]() Fawcett in 2016 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Full name | Nicole Marie Fawcett | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Born | San Antonio, Texas, U.S. | December 16, 1986||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Height | 1.91 m (6 ft 3 in) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Spike | 310 cm (120 in) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Block | 291 cm (115 in) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
College / University | Pennsylvania State University | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Volleyball information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Position | Opposite | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Current club | ![]() | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Number | 11 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Career | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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National team | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Medal record
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Nicole Marie Fawcett (born December 16, 1986) is an American indoor volleyball player who won the 2014 World Championship and 2015 Pan American Games gold medal with the United States national team.
Fawcett played for Penn State University from 2005 to 2008, winning two NCAA national championships in 2007 and 2008.
During her collegiate career, Fawcett was a four-time All-American and racked up many honors, including the AVCA National Player of the Year in 2008, [1] National Freshman of the Year in 2005, and the Honda Sports Award winner for volleyball in 2008. She played professionally for Gigantes de Carolina (The Carolina Giants) in Liga de Voleibol Superior Femenino, Puerto Rico's pro league in 2009.
Fawcett set the most points in a single match world record, scoring 55 points while playing for the Seongnam KEC Hi-pass club in South Korea's V-League on February 14, 2013. [2]
Nicole Fawcett was born in San Antonio, Texas. in 1986. Her mother played volleyball at Wright State and her maternal grandfather was a pitcher for the Baltimore Orioles in 1945.
She grew up in Zanesfield, Ohio, and was a four-year volleyball letterwinner and three year track letterwinner at Benjamin Logan High School near Bellefontaine, Ohio, where she set a school record for kills in a single season for four consecutive years and was the 2004–05 Ohio Gatorade Player of the Year. [3]
She was a two-year member of the USA Junior National Team, including the 2004 squad that won the NORCECA gold medal in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada and was a member of the 2003 USA Youth National Team. She played club volleyball for Team Atlantis Volleyball Club and holds the Ohio state record for kills. [4] She also a regional high jump finalist in track in 2004 and 2005.
Fawcett was considered a top three recruit in the class of 2005. She said one of the reasons she chose Penn State was because Rec Hall was her favorite place to be in and that she compared it to every school she visited. [5]
Nicole is a 6'3'' (1.91 m) left side hitter and is known for her extremely powerful, hard kills and serves, which makes it very hard for the opposing team to defend. [6]
Fawcett made Penn State history, as she was named the program's first ever AVCA National Freshman of the Year. [7] In addition, she was named the Big Ten Freshman of the Year, a second team All-American, First Team All-Big Ten. She also became Penn State's first ever freshman to earn Big Ten Player of the Week honors. [8]
During the season, she led the Lions and ranked third in the Big Ten with an average of 4.51 kills per seton .309 hitting and also ranked second in the league in conference-only matches with 4.53 kills per set. She led the team in kills on 28 occasions and recorded 31 double-digit kill matches, including a then-career-high 26 kills at Hawaiʻi.
She set an NCAA tournament record for hitting percentage in a single match, which was held since 1983, when she attacked at a career high .889 clip with 16 kills, 0 errors, on 18 attempts against Long Island. [9]
Fawcett was named a First Team All-American and was also a unanimous first Team All-Big Ten pick as she played in all 35 matches and 113 of 114 sets for the year. [10] She averaged 4.27 kills per set, good for second on the team and eighth in the Big Ten. She finished the season ranked fourth on the team and sixth in the conference in hitting percentage (.331), the only pure left-side hitter in the league within the top six.
Other awards include the Texas Invitational Most Valuable Player after leading Penn State to their dramatic comeback win over the Longhorns. [11] She was also the LSU Classic MVP and the Penn State Invitational MVP. [12]
Fawcett reached exactly 1,000 kills in the first match of the season in the 3–1 win over the Texas Longhorns at Rec Hall, earning her Penn State's Golden Volleyball for 1,000 career kills. [13] On August 31 against Cal Poly, she set a new career high for kills in a single match with 31, which was exactly five years to the day that a Penn State player recorded 30 or more kills in a match. [14] Fawcett was one of the best outside hitters in the country, having 533 kills on the year for an average of 4.44 kills per set. The 533 kills ranked ninth on Penn State's single season record list. She led the team in aces and was one of the toughest servers in the country, having 47 aces on the year, more than her first two seasons combined. She was named an AVCA First Team All-American and a unanimous First Team All-Big Ten pick.
She helped her team win their second NCAA Women's Volleyball Championship against top-seeded Stanford on December 15, 2007, at the ARCO Arena. She served championship point just a couple of hours before her 21st birthday. [15] She was named to the Final Four All-Tournament Team as she had 19 kills and two aces in the NCAA championship match. In the National Semifinal win over California, she served the final three points, including two consecutive aces, to win the match in the 3–0 win over the Bears. [16] She was also named the University Park Regional All-Tournament Team in her helping her team to 3–0 wins over Michigan and BYU. Throughout the NCAA tournament, she had at least two service aces in five of the six matches she played in, helping Penn State tie the NCAA record for services aces in an NCAA tournament, set by Long Beach State in 1998. [17]
In her final year playing for Penn State, Fawcett was named the American Volleyball Coaches Association National Player of the Year, [18] was the Big Ten Player of the Year, and was voted as the Honda Sports Award winner as the nation's top collegiate volleyball player. [19] [20]
In conference play, Fawcett had 236 kills on a .400 hitting % average. By years end, Fawcett totaled 431 kills. In the 2008 NCAA Tournament, Fawcett had a season high 24 kills against Nebraska in the National Semifinals in Omaha to help Penn State to a 3–2 win, ending Nebraska's 96 match winning streak in the state. In the fifth set vs. Nebraska, Penn State was down 10–8 before Fawcett served six straight points, which included a service ace, to swing the match in favor of Penn State. The next night, Fawcett was named a First Team All-American for the third year in a row and was announced as the Division I National Player of the Year. In the National Championship against Stanford, Fawcett had the championship winning kill and had a total of 10 kills to help the Lions win their second straight national title, and was named to the NCAA Final Four All-Tournament Team for the second year in a row.
Fawcett ended her career with 1,943 total kills, which ranks second in Penn State history.
In March 2009, Fawcett made her professional debut with Gigantes de Carolina (The Carolina Giants) in Liga de Voleibol Superior Femenino, Puerto Rico's pro league which began its season in January 2009. In her debut she had 16 kills and 2 blocks in a 3–2 loss to undefeated Llaneras de Toa Baja. She got 26 kills and a block in a 3–1 win over Vaqueras de Bayamon. [21]
In the 2012−13 season, Fawcett moved to South Korea to play for the Seongnam KEC Hi-pass club in South Korea's V-League. Fawcett set the world record for highest individual points scored in a single match on February 14, 2013, when she scored 55 points in leading her club to a five-set victory over Hwaseong IBK Altos. In the match, she recorded 53 kills on 85 attacks with only seven errors as part of her record-breaking performance. [22] Although Seongnam KEC Hi-pass finished a disappointing fourth in the 2012−13 season, Fawcett won the scoring title with 875 points and the All-Star MVP Award.
In the 2013−14 seasons, Fawcett's team failed to reach the Playoffs finishing fourth two years in a row, but she signed a one-year contract extension with the team for the 2014−15 season. Fawcett had another breakout time in the 2014−15 season when she was ranked third in most points with 896 and won the Season MVP Award, leading her team to the regular season championship. In the Finals of the 2014−15 Playoffs, Fawcett led the team in scoring in all three games, racking up 22 points in Game 1, 34 in Game 2 and 21 in Game 3. However, her team failed to win the V-League championship, swept in three games by Hwaseong IBK Altos.
In June 2009, Fawcett joined the U.S. National Team. [23] As her team won the 2013 Pan-American Cup, she was named the Most Valuable Player and Best Server. [24] Fawcett was part of the USA national team that won the 2014 World Championship, defeating China 3-1 in the final match. [25] [26] As the United States won the 2015 Pan American volleyball championship, defeating Brazil 3-0, [27] she won the competition's Best Opposite individual award. [28] National team coach Karch Kiraly chose to remove her from the team in late June 2016. [29]
On February 11, 2020, it was announced that Fawcett was named as Ohio State's women's volleyball team volunteer assistant coach. [30] She helped lead Ohio State to a 16–4 record in her first season as well as a 2020 NCAA Tournament sweet sixteen appearance.
Logan Maile Lei Tom is an American former indoor volleyball and beach volleyball player, and is the current head coach of the Israel women's national volleyball team. She is a four-time Olympian at the outside hitter position. At age 19, Logan became the youngest woman ever to be selected for an American Olympic volleyball team when she competed at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney. She is a skilled all-around player who brings stability to the American serve receive and defense, while also providing the team with a solid attack and block at the net. She had been a huge part of the national team from 2000 to 2012. At the 2008 Olympics, Tom helped Team USA win a silver medal and was named Best Scorer, she won another silver medal at the 2012 Olympics with the national team. She was also awarded the Most Valuable Player of the 2004 FIVB World Grand Prix.
Ogonna Nneka Nnamani is a physician, retired American indoor volleyball player, and former member of the United States National and Olympic teams. She was awarded the Honda-Broderick Cup in 2004 as the nation's top female athlete across all NCAA sports and is regarded as one of the best players in Stanford University's history with a career record of 2,450 kills, for which she entered the Stanford Hall of Fame in 2015.
Russell David Rose is an American author, professor and was the women's volleyball coach at Penn State University (1979–2021). His lifetime head coaching record is 1330–229, which ranks first in NCAA Division I history. He has the most wins and highest winning percentage of any Penn State intercollegiate athletic coach in Penn State history.
The Nebraska Cornhuskers women's volleyball team competes as part of NCAA Division I, representing the University of Nebraska–Lincoln in the Big Ten. Nebraska plays its home games at the Bob Devaney Sports Center and has sold out every home match since 2001. The team has been coached by John Cook since 2000.
Cynthia Jane Barboza is an American retired volleyball player. She is an outside hitter who played at Stanford University for four years.
The 2007 NCAA Division I women's volleyball tournament began on November 29, 2007, with 64 teams and concluded on December 15, 2007, when Penn State defeated Stanford 3 games to 2 in Sacramento, California for the program's second NCAA title.
The 2008 NCAA Division I women's volleyball tournament began on December 4, 2008 with 64 teams and concluded on December 20, 2008 when Penn State defeated Stanford, 3 sets to 0, in Omaha, Nebraska for the program's third NCAA title.
Big Ten volleyball is made up of the women's volleyball programs from the Big Ten's 14 member universities. Through 2021, the Big Ten has earned a combined 36 NCAA national semifinal appearances by eight different teams. In 1987, Illinois became the first Big Ten program to make an appearance in the national semifinal. In 1999 Penn State won the conference's first national championship, and they have won seven overall, including a record four consecutive titles from 2007 to 2010. Minnesota, Illinois, and Wisconsin have each made national championship game appearances.
The Penn State Nittany Lions women's volleyball program has had a long tradition, founded in 1976 by Tom Tait, long-time coach of the Penn State men's team, who coached the women's team from 1976 to 1979 and was named a USA Volleyball All-Time great coach in 2007.
Megan Hodge Easy is an American indoor volleyball player who won a silver medal at the 2012 Summer Olympics with the US team and played for Pennsylvania State University's volleyball team. Currently, she plays in Brazilian team Itambé-Minas.
Christa Deanne Harmotto Dietzen is an American former professional volleyball player who played as a middle blocker for the United States women's national volleyball team. She played college volleyball for the Penn State women's volleyball team, and won back to back national championships in 2007 and 2008. Harmotto won gold with the national team at the 2014 World Championship, silver at the 2012 London Summer Olympics, and bronze at the 2015 World Cup and 2016 Rio Olympic Games.
The Texas Longhorns women's volleyball team represents The University of Texas at Austin in NCAA Division I intercollegiate women's volleyball competition. The Longhorns currently compete in the Big 12 Conference.
The 2010 NCAA Division I women's volleyball tournament began on December 2, 2010 and ended December 18, when Penn State swept California to win an unprecedented fourth straight NCAA title, making it their fifth overall. Penn State head coach Russ Rose became the first Division I coach to win five NCAA titles.
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Micha Danielle Hancock is an American indoor volleyball player for the United States women's national volleyball team. Hancock played setter for the Penn State women's volleyball team, and won back-to-back national championships in 2013 and 2014. Hancock won gold with the national team at the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics.
Lauren Cacciamani is a former volleyball player for Penn State.
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Katie Anne Schumacher-Cawley is an American former volleyball and basketball player and is the head coach of the Penn State women's volleyball team. After serving as the associate head coach since 2018, she was named head coach on January 10, 2022, following Russ Rose's retirement from coaching.
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